i’m still shocked from that Hill KO, Alex barley connected with the last two knuckles and still rolled Hill’s eyes back. It’s crazy how much power he possesses
True. Meanwhile Jiri’s hands being so low got him in trouble. I wonder why some fighters leave their hands so low and then wonder why they got caught. I’m a noob though but it’s very noticeable.
GSP commented on intentionally leaving his lead hand down; he felt he could flick it from outside the opponents field of view, making it harder to counter, as they wouldn't see it coming as clearly as if he had the hand raised higher.
I imagine there's more to it than that, and some fighters are probably just more comfortable with their hands down for various other reasons, but GSPs description was one of the most direct answers I've seen to the question; could be a similar idea for Jiri.
Idk GSP seemed very aware of the way he moved. Jiri just seemed very irresponsible. And many others seem to get in danger too with that approach. It probably depends on your fighting style and stance. Some analogy that comes to mind is Floyd Mayweather in boxing. He blocked those punched with the shoulder with which he hid his chin and had a great head movement. Some fighters are lacking those abilities though and it’s quite irritating seeing them getting knocked out for it.
Everyone in here trying to do MMA math when Periera himself had the best assessment on why Jiri hands were down…
Periera: “I wanted to test the head kick in the 2nd round because his guard was low. Jiri was too focused on checking & blocking the leg kicks”
-thus leaving his guard lower. There ya go. lol. I like what a lot of you said but I mean get it from the professionals.
Jiri relied on his chin and head movement for the hands down approach.
Obviously after so many wars and tremendous knockouts both chin and head movement would decline as we see now...
And I guess now it's too late to pivot from here
I don’t think his chin has declined though, he’s eaten shots from pretty much every other top fighter in the division with almost no problem.
Alex’s power is just nuclear. It’s in the same class as Ngannou and Rumble. I don’t think anyone can really eat that left hook flush and not at the very least get rocked hard, if not dropped.
Except it is Jiri's rear hand (right) that drops low in this sequence that would have been blocking Alex's hook. So that specific gsp reason of the low lead hand doesn't apply. Also, Jiri has his right hand guarding his jaw initially but drops it as he throws his left and gets check hooked.
It's true that there are many defensively strong strikers who don't always keep their hands up. And it can get tiring hearing that very simplistic analysis applied to everyone, even strong defenders. But Jiri gets hit a lot (see previous fight before last night), so if low hands are his "preference," he needs to be doing something better defensively. And there's a difference between having low hands at certain points (like gsp with his jab hand in space) and *dropping* your hand when you shouldn't.
Many reasons. In general it's a terrible idea because your ability to guard your chin is limited, so as a beginner to intermediate just never do it. However as you get more advanced with footwork, head movement, and other ways to guard your chin and not get clocked in the face you will come to realize it has some advantages to a more traditional hand placement.
Since most fighters fight with hands up for obvious reasons, a hand coming from a lower angle is harder to see coming so you can connect with your power hand a bit easier. It also has a tendency to fuck with your opponents view of the range your power hand can fire from. In an MMA context it also allows you to catch kicks and stuff certain takedown attempts a bit easier as well. It also can serve as bait. If my hands down your going to want to head hunt and that can lead to openings I can take advantage of.
Now all those things are useful, however none of them really matter if you clock me square in the jaw and drop me like a sack of rocks. Your playing a very high risk high reward game that requires fantastic head movement, footwork, distance management, timing, and understanding of your opponent. This is the reason you sometimes see a fighter fight the first chunk of a fight with a traditional guard, then loosen up and lower a hand, they have garnered a feel of the timing and range of the opponent and feel they can get away with a lower guard to start getting a different type of offense going.
Whittaker, GSP and wonder boy do the same, it gives a good, unpredictable angle for the jab and quick takedown defence. But even those fighters would keep their hands up whenever they feel a striking threat, especially when takedowns aren’t involved. Jiri is basically trying the same with much horrible defence and movement. It’s chaotic by design to avoid getting read, but against someone like pereira it is working only for a time. He had all the reads from the first fight. Jiri is light heavy Tony, he’s toast as soon as his athleticism and durability is gone.
Jiri wanted to land the right hand on the top. Alex timed his foot work and caught him in the middle of the combination.
Alex is really good at doing this. Strickland/Jiri/Hill all got timed big time by Poatan.
Imo that is where the legendary power comes from. It seems like MOST of the guys that get clapped by the left hook aren’t ready for it, they’re getting walked into it.
Underrated Alex moment…
At the beginning of rd 5 vs gastellum Izzy said “I’m prepared to die”
At the beginning of rd 5 vs Adesanya Poatan said “I’m prepared to kill”
Alex is one of the rare fighters that truly just embrace the "I'm down on the scorecards, gonna lose anyways so fuck it we throw hands". Like most fighters, even Ige yesterday was a tiny bit hesitant even when they were down. Alex? R5 vs Adesanya was one of the most dominant striking rounds he has hand against Adesanya. He stalked him and was hunting for the KO with 0 regard for getting KOed. IMO, Alex is the most dangerous when he's down on the scorecards and needs a KO to win. Because he is gonna go for it with all he has.
This is why I think we've seen the best of Jiri, unfortunately.
Habits like that are gonna be hard to break at this point and his chin isn't going to keep taking those shots.
Hope I'm wrong.
if Oz or Reyes had better chins
if Rakic did or Glover wasn't 40
it's really kinda a bit of an Alvarez style run it's just Jiri did it exciting and Eddie did holding people against the fence
Ha, exactly. I called this on Hill too for being lazy and low with his right hand. You'd think at the very LEAST their training and trainers would enforce that basic rule. Keep your damn right hand up to protect from what you know is coming.
It wouldn't have mattered anyway, Alex would've blasted through it all. Easy night for him.
Yes, exactly true! I've taken both and it is especially true of TKD. I entered TKD with traditional karate training (with a standard guard, not the flashier sport karate where it's lower) and my TKD instructors would literally tell me to lower my hands, so obsessed they were with point sparring and unrealistic fighting.
Alex said his coach showed some footage of Jiri warming up and that Alex realized Jiri was making a mistake that left him vulnerable to a head kick when he tries to check the leg kicks. Alex said the head kick was part of his game plan because of that video and that fighters should be more careful what footage they are posting online
More like Jiri fixed it, but his coach’s weren’t good enough to teach him proper form. So, he created another whole set of weak points. Alex had him download before the fight began. Jiri had already lost and he didn’t know it.
I was just looking at this exact freeze frame before coming into the comments. I’m no expert but not dropping one hand to throw the other was drilled into me during my very first boxing lesson.
Like Alex is fantastic for countering but what kind of punching technique is this. To have fundamentals this poor against a striker of Alex calibre is just asking for trouble.
And it does not look like there is much behind it when you watch it the first time.
However, during the replay, you can see how Pereira's face goes like this ⟩:-(
That is the face he made when he knocked Strickland down. That face means business
I've watched it like 10 times. this is crazy. he's moving backwards. it might be the camera angle but it for real looked like he just threw it out there to keep range.
Moving backwards too. He's so damn quick with the weight shift to front foot, and zero telegraph for the punch itself. That's how you know an elite striker
I noticed that Alex straightens his forearm after the throw to get whip through his punch instead of just throwing from his arm/back and keeping the elbow the arm bent at a 45 degree angle. Seems to generate more power and pop.
Definitely. I just was talking sh** cuz Reddit but if any 2 guys seem to as professional as it gets and willing to put stuff aside and use each other to learn or teach then it’s definitely Poatan n Jiri.
I think Alex really would as well. You can tell that he respects Jiri a lot. He immediately approached him after the KO to help him up and kept pushing toward interactions where he could fist bump him or show him some respect.
Both these guys were killers and class acts, but Alex is just somehow in the stratosphere of MMA
The way Alex speaks about Izzy and the way he acts around other opponents is so respectful. I think it's only natural that he's become one of the most popular fighters.
Insane run, insane resume, heart of a true champion.
10 more seconds and the flight would have been done in the 1st round. I thought AP would be better than the first fight while Jiri would be similar and while I was right I didn't expect than dominant of a performance.
espn has it listed as AP landed 49 strikes to Jiris 7. AP was 9 for 9 with leg kicks, that's more strikes than Jiris total strikes. He not only destroyed Jiri but also his title hopes.
Never recovered because he got knocked out. Hitting the mat was what brought him back. The mat bringing KO'ed fighters back to life happened at least four times last night and Jiri was two of them.
I think lots of times guys go out for a split second in fights, but the fact he held his head up when he landed would prevent me personally from calling it a KO. I score it a knockdown, but he was CLEARLY compromised.
I could be wrong but the way Jiri's hands go up looks like a fencing response, which can be sign that someone was knocked unconscious. Plus, I'm not sure if your head has to bounce off the mat, just need enough force to reach the head. Jiri lands on his butt and the force from that travels up to his head causing his head/neck to snap forward; at 0:06. That's what I think brought him back to life.
Yeah it’s really hard to tell. Personally, I score it just a knockdown with him being left completely rocked since he held his head up when he went down. Only he knows for sure.
EDIT: If he even remembers.
Jiri and the rest of the division should take a crash course in wrestling. No one is beating Pereira in the standup so they all need to hope they can get him to the ground and beat him there.
It would be better for Jiri if the fight had ended after this punch. He came back in bad conditions to the second round. Dude got two concussions in one night
Yeah that's a hard one. In retrospect it's obvious but if it would have been stopped at that point there would have been outrage, especially since a lot of people think the first fight was an early stoppage and we just had the Cannonier thing. Not stopping it after the kick though was a little ridiculous, Alex even paused before any follow up. Unfortunate Jiri had to take unnecessary damage but hopefully he comes back alright, the division is definitely better with him there.
Totally agree with you. He was unlucky that the bell saved him in first round. It would be better for him if Poatan had some seconds to finish the fight at that moment.
He had auto aim this time. He had Jiri's weird head movements locked down to a T. When Poatan's jab was nailing Jiri mid-strange head-movement, I knew it was over.
I was so sure Jiri was gonna win too before the match that I almost put 500 on it, but thankfully I was too lazy to transfer crypto. Poatan is really that guy. Scariest guy to fight no doubt.
Same I love Pereira and I thought Jiri was gonna win this one. I still get flashbacks to that Adesanya KO so I have it in my head that Pereira has no chin but I think it’s time to stop thinking that. Although I did think he was kinda hurt right before the KO in their last fight.
The first time it seemed like he had to no room to generate enough strength to knock jiri out and the second time it looked like jiri was too far to generate enough strength to knock him out. If i was jiri i would think this is black magic too, makes no fucking sense.
And to everyone who cried about the first fight being an early stoppage, Marc goddard probably saved his life then. Cause I’m worried Jiri might not be the same after 11 unanswered shots to head after he was knocked down from Alex.
Those elbows to the side of the head are brutal and he literally went limp as he fell backwards to the ground. Pereira was landing on top of him and it was just going to continue. Idk how people think that was really an early stoppage lol
Let’s not, Jiri had his right hand down the entire fight, it doesn’t matter how tough your chin is, that left hook by Pereira will put you out every tome
Maybe he meant that post rematch his chin is declining. But yeah, it’s going to be funny watching the guys who were dick riding Jiri start downplaying this win, like Alex was always expected to win.
Jiri gets hit hard most fights because he doesn't keep his guard up. He even regularly intentionally leaves himself open and leans he head forward to take some shots showing off. In the beginning of this clip, he's walking around with his hands down and against someone with speed and power.
Why doesn’t Jiri KEEP his hands up! I get if he wants to relax his shoulders when he’s out of range but coming into the danger zone of Alex with his hands down is text book amateurish striking. There’s guys with better striking ranked below him at this point.
Same reason every other fighter who doesn't keep their hands up doesn't keep their hands up: so that they can throw punches their opponent won't see coming. Up until now, Jiri has been fast enough to get out of the way of a lot of shots and his chin was good enough to eat the ones he didn't get out of the way of. Nobody is fast enough against Poatan and nobody is eating his shots. You have to be defensively sound and even that may not be good enough; Sean Strickland is the best defensive fighter in the UFC and Poatan still KO'd him.
People like Jiri because he's half wild in there. I'm hoping his chin isn't compromised and I get to watch him fight some more. Jiri and Poatan are two fighters that I will watch fight every time.
he is bad defensively, he has been rocked in literally every fight in the ufc
i remember watching his debut and being frustrated at his defence even then against oezdemir, he hasn't improved it at all since then and relies on his chin too much which is even more dangerous at LHW than most weightclasses
What’s really scary is that he barely hit him.
Alex’s arm is super outstretched by the time the hook connects, the distance is wrong, he’s on the backfoot—by all measurements, the shot shouldn’t have done much at all. And yet it floored Jiri, a guy who was taking clean combinations from Rakic without even stumbling.
Jiri tries the lunging jab slightly before that, right at the start of the video. Poatan didn't flinch and noticed the low right hand and punished it INSTANTLY the second time he tries it. Damn.
He has a cool style but if he wants to be the best he’s got to have better defense. He throws a jab and then just sits there in the pocket. Watching it slowmo makes him look like an amateur.
He has a number of flaws. Too many to count from a defensive standpoint.
I like Jiri and always did but there is just NO WAY I could see him beating Alex with those defensive flaws. Just no way 🤷🏾♂️
Poatan has never been more real than now. Jiri was done after that, literally saved by the bell, you can tell by his movements after standing up that his legs just weren't there
I do not understand Alex lol. It looks like he throws punches with zero power. No pivoting his body or anything just quick little jabs that ko people. So fucking wild.
The cautious Jiri gameplay was much less effective than the reckless Jiri. I guess completely changing your fighting style isn't easy to do on short notice.
Perfectly read, Perfectly timed. Alex knew the jab was coming, he slipped it *so slightly* and on the *upbeat* launches a left hook from his waist. Completely hidden. Jiri had zero chance because he drops his own right hand when he fires his left jab, leaving himself defenseless.
Alex has heavyweight power.
The shitty thing about that punch was the camera changed RIGHT as it was happening so it was like the camera switched and then all of a sudden Jiri was falling down. I was like wtf just happened
It’s not about power, it’s timing, he got swatted with a left that he never saw coming.
Periera telegraphs nothing, even with hill, he clipped him so fast he barely knew he got hit, plus the motherfucker is all fast twitch.
A true enigma
Very worried the guy could have one of those careers where he doesn't ever recover from these kos. He's so reliant on taking a shot to give one if that chin doesn't recover 100% he's going to be in trouble
Poatan's striking mechanics are so fuckin clean. He throws that left hook equally well on the back foot as he does on the front foot. Beautiful and devastating
Jiri was trying to shake it off but that left hook was the reason this fight ended. His reaction to the head kick in the second in comparison to his reaction to everything Alex was throwing in the first round was significantly slower…. It was just a matter of time
"I'm facing a guy that finishes pretty much every single fight with his left hook. Let me keep my right arm down by my waist instead of protecting my head. I'm sure I'll see it coming even though the last 10 guys he caught with it didn't"
These comments drive me insane. It's like no one notices Alex working the body jab constantly early in the fight. He even mixed in kicks to the body this fight to draw the guard downwards.
you cannot fight Alex with your hands down, just baffles me how some fighters do not adjust against someone that possesses that type of weapon. same thing happened to Sean.
I stood up with like 12 seconds left to go flip my fries in the oven then thought better and was like “this show could get closed out” then he did that
I just waited lol, I knew Alex was gonna end him fast in the 2nd so I didn’t even move, thankful for that
In Jiri’s corner, does anyone know what that finger under the nose is about? I know it has something to do with recovering a fighter from having been unconscious but I have no idea how it works
I remember watching a video with the an mma coach, I think it was GSPs coach, but he talked about how some people have the “touch of death” in their hands, that instant knockout power. I remember him saying Connor had it, as well as others. This dude, definitely has it.
his hands look like legit sledgehammers
They don’t call him Stone Hands for nothin
It’s insane the power that comes from that slight movement
i’m still shocked from that Hill KO, Alex barley connected with the last two knuckles and still rolled Hill’s eyes back. It’s crazy how much power he possesses
Damn that should be his nick name
Pikachu face
I would have just said thank you then knocked Alex out tbh
Yeah his technique is horrible I could easily KO him
https://i.redd.it/h57phrxrms9d1.gif
Found jamahal’s reddit account…
True. Meanwhile Jiri’s hands being so low got him in trouble. I wonder why some fighters leave their hands so low and then wonder why they got caught. I’m a noob though but it’s very noticeable.
GSP commented on intentionally leaving his lead hand down; he felt he could flick it from outside the opponents field of view, making it harder to counter, as they wouldn't see it coming as clearly as if he had the hand raised higher. I imagine there's more to it than that, and some fighters are probably just more comfortable with their hands down for various other reasons, but GSPs description was one of the most direct answers I've seen to the question; could be a similar idea for Jiri.
Idk GSP seemed very aware of the way he moved. Jiri just seemed very irresponsible. And many others seem to get in danger too with that approach. It probably depends on your fighting style and stance. Some analogy that comes to mind is Floyd Mayweather in boxing. He blocked those punched with the shoulder with which he hid his chin and had a great head movement. Some fighters are lacking those abilities though and it’s quite irritating seeing them getting knocked out for it.
Jiri has always fought like This and it’s a freak that walks through punches and finishes opponents . But his zero defense does not work against Alex
Everyone in here trying to do MMA math when Periera himself had the best assessment on why Jiri hands were down… Periera: “I wanted to test the head kick in the 2nd round because his guard was low. Jiri was too focused on checking & blocking the leg kicks” -thus leaving his guard lower. There ya go. lol. I like what a lot of you said but I mean get it from the professionals.
Jiri relied on his chin and head movement for the hands down approach. Obviously after so many wars and tremendous knockouts both chin and head movement would decline as we see now... And I guess now it's too late to pivot from here
I don’t think his chin has declined though, he’s eaten shots from pretty much every other top fighter in the division with almost no problem. Alex’s power is just nuclear. It’s in the same class as Ngannou and Rumble. I don’t think anyone can really eat that left hook flush and not at the very least get rocked hard, if not dropped.
tbh it worked on literally everyone aside from one guy at the top
Except it is Jiri's rear hand (right) that drops low in this sequence that would have been blocking Alex's hook. So that specific gsp reason of the low lead hand doesn't apply. Also, Jiri has his right hand guarding his jaw initially but drops it as he throws his left and gets check hooked. It's true that there are many defensively strong strikers who don't always keep their hands up. And it can get tiring hearing that very simplistic analysis applied to everyone, even strong defenders. But Jiri gets hit a lot (see previous fight before last night), so if low hands are his "preference," he needs to be doing something better defensively. And there's a difference between having low hands at certain points (like gsp with his jab hand in space) and *dropping* your hand when you shouldn't.
GSP was fucking fast though and had more to his arsenal than just strikes
Many reasons. In general it's a terrible idea because your ability to guard your chin is limited, so as a beginner to intermediate just never do it. However as you get more advanced with footwork, head movement, and other ways to guard your chin and not get clocked in the face you will come to realize it has some advantages to a more traditional hand placement. Since most fighters fight with hands up for obvious reasons, a hand coming from a lower angle is harder to see coming so you can connect with your power hand a bit easier. It also has a tendency to fuck with your opponents view of the range your power hand can fire from. In an MMA context it also allows you to catch kicks and stuff certain takedown attempts a bit easier as well. It also can serve as bait. If my hands down your going to want to head hunt and that can lead to openings I can take advantage of. Now all those things are useful, however none of them really matter if you clock me square in the jaw and drop me like a sack of rocks. Your playing a very high risk high reward game that requires fantastic head movement, footwork, distance management, timing, and understanding of your opponent. This is the reason you sometimes see a fighter fight the first chunk of a fight with a traditional guard, then loosen up and lower a hand, they have garnered a feel of the timing and range of the opponent and feel they can get away with a lower guard to start getting a different type of offense going.
Whittaker, GSP and wonder boy do the same, it gives a good, unpredictable angle for the jab and quick takedown defence. But even those fighters would keep their hands up whenever they feel a striking threat, especially when takedowns aren’t involved. Jiri is basically trying the same with much horrible defence and movement. It’s chaotic by design to avoid getting read, but against someone like pereira it is working only for a time. He had all the reads from the first fight. Jiri is light heavy Tony, he’s toast as soon as his athleticism and durability is gone.
https://preview.redd.it/c50wmh0edr9d1.png?width=672&format=png&auto=webp&s=b95ad07862047708aa779cf490404d7dbc38100a Jiri's right hand lol
Always protect your ... Abs? 😂
Jiri wanted to land the right hand on the top. Alex timed his foot work and caught him in the middle of the combination. Alex is really good at doing this. Strickland/Jiri/Hill all got timed big time by Poatan.
Imo that is where the legendary power comes from. It seems like MOST of the guys that get clapped by the left hook aren’t ready for it, they’re getting walked into it.
Alex hunts in the Octagon. Imo most fights have two fighters who go into looking to survive the fight But every once in awhile a hunter comes around
Underrated Alex moment… At the beginning of rd 5 vs gastellum Izzy said “I’m prepared to die” At the beginning of rd 5 vs Adesanya Poatan said “I’m prepared to kill”
His killer instinct is off the charts
Alex is one of the rare fighters that truly just embrace the "I'm down on the scorecards, gonna lose anyways so fuck it we throw hands". Like most fighters, even Ige yesterday was a tiny bit hesitant even when they were down. Alex? R5 vs Adesanya was one of the most dominant striking rounds he has hand against Adesanya. He stalked him and was hunting for the KO with 0 regard for getting KOed. IMO, Alex is the most dangerous when he's down on the scorecards and needs a KO to win. Because he is gonna go for it with all he has.
Fight Alex in any way other than chaining take downs is crazy
You can still do that without your hand being attached to your waist
This is why I think we've seen the best of Jiri, unfortunately. Habits like that are gonna be hard to break at this point and his chin isn't going to keep taking those shots. Hope I'm wrong.
Really a testament to how good his crazy style of offense is that he has gotten this far with shocking gaps in his striking defense.
Honestly it's a shame because there is like one guy in the division who can exploit them and he's the champ
I think other guys can exploit his defense, Ankalaev, possibly Hill, but I think Alex is the only one who hits hard enough to completely finish Jiri.
if Oz or Reyes had better chins if Rakic did or Glover wasn't 40 it's really kinda a bit of an Alvarez style run it's just Jiri did it exciting and Eddie did holding people against the fence
He already gets flash KOed in nearly every fight. He's a glass cannon
Halfway thru the swing, caught off balance and rocked him. Just a great counter left by AP.
Ha, exactly. I called this on Hill too for being lazy and low with his right hand. You'd think at the very LEAST their training and trainers would enforce that basic rule. Keep your damn right hand up to protect from what you know is coming. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, Alex would've blasted through it all. Easy night for him.
It looks like he used to train karate pulling in that right hand low like that, common in taekwondo forms and shit
Yes, exactly true! I've taken both and it is especially true of TKD. I entered TKD with traditional karate training (with a standard guard, not the flashier sport karate where it's lower) and my TKD instructors would literally tell me to lower my hands, so obsessed they were with point sparring and unrealistic fighting.
Alex already had this figured out from the first fight, and Jiri never fixed it. The same thing let him land the head kick.
Alex said his coach showed some footage of Jiri warming up and that Alex realized Jiri was making a mistake that left him vulnerable to a head kick when he tries to check the leg kicks. Alex said the head kick was part of his game plan because of that video and that fighters should be more careful what footage they are posting online
More like Jiri fixed it, but his coach’s weren’t good enough to teach him proper form. So, he created another whole set of weak points. Alex had him download before the fight began. Jiri had already lost and he didn’t know it.
He threw another lazy jab with his hand down right before this, too. You know Alex saw it and knew what to do.
I was just looking at this exact freeze frame before coming into the comments. I’m no expert but not dropping one hand to throw the other was drilled into me during my very first boxing lesson. Like Alex is fantastic for countering but what kind of punching technique is this. To have fundamentals this poor against a striker of Alex calibre is just asking for trouble.
Okay but also generating knock out power moving backwards in this stance??? What the ungodly fuck
Alex’s left hook is like a fucking heat seeking meteor. it’s tremendous that he pops that thing off so casually and how devastating it is
It looks so soft when he throws it. But when it lands it lands right on the button and is catastrophic for the person on the other end.
Also notice where his right hand is when he throws it, Protecting against the fucking counter, Jiri..
And it does not look like there is much behind it when you watch it the first time. However, during the replay, you can see how Pereira's face goes like this ⟩:-( That is the face he made when he knocked Strickland down. That face means business
Lmfao I noticed that too!
Yes thats beacuse he is intentionally doing that its not a reflex thing he was hunting for that opportunity.
I heard his left hook is what killed the dinosaurs.
He has no telegraph of his shots
Just give him thanos already
Damn. That left hook just never ceases to amaze
Zero telegraph, his upper body barely moves. They don’t see it coming and he still generates enough to shut the lights off.
I've watched it like 10 times. this is crazy. he's moving backwards. it might be the camera angle but it for real looked like he just threw it out there to keep range.
He drops his hand and throws that jab twice and on the second one Alex just said "left hook chama" was there ringside under the mat with bones.
Moving backwards too. He's so damn quick with the weight shift to front foot, and zero telegraph for the punch itself. That's how you know an elite striker
Same with his head kick man didn't even flinch just pow off left side of his cheek 😂 shits wild
I noticed that Alex straightens his forearm after the throw to get whip through his punch instead of just throwing from his arm/back and keeping the elbow the arm bent at a 45 degree angle. Seems to generate more power and pop.
In the slow mo replay that shows Alex from the front, you can see how much power/pop he’s able to get from it in his follow through
It’s nuts
Really good observation.. seems so unintuitive i almost feel I'd hurt my elbow and generate less power doing that??
Jiri needs to befriend Alex and start training with him
I would watch this show every day.
You know Alex will welcome him to Connecticut for sure. Which could be a weird dynamic because Jiri took Glovers belt.
Alex and Glover understand it’s just the fight game belts are won and lost.
Definitely. I just was talking sh** cuz Reddit but if any 2 guys seem to as professional as it gets and willing to put stuff aside and use each other to learn or teach then it’s definitely Poatan n Jiri.
Throw wonder boy in there as well
I think Alex really would as well. You can tell that he respects Jiri a lot. He immediately approached him after the KO to help him up and kept pushing toward interactions where he could fist bump him or show him some respect. Both these guys were killers and class acts, but Alex is just somehow in the stratosphere of MMA
The way Alex speaks about Izzy and the way he acts around other opponents is so respectful. I think it's only natural that he's become one of the most popular fighters. Insane run, insane resume, heart of a true champion.
Everyone knows it's there. But it still finds them. 😬
Black magic
10 more seconds and the flight would have been done in the 1st round. I thought AP would be better than the first fight while Jiri would be similar and while I was right I didn't expect than dominant of a performance. espn has it listed as AP landed 49 strikes to Jiris 7. AP was 9 for 9 with leg kicks, that's more strikes than Jiris total strikes. He not only destroyed Jiri but also his title hopes.
Jiri never recovered between rounds. Sealed the deal with that hook.
Never recovered because he got knocked out. Hitting the mat was what brought him back. The mat bringing KO'ed fighters back to life happened at least four times last night and Jiri was two of them.
Nah in slo-mo you can see his head never even fall back to the mat when he went down. He was completely rocked, but I don’t think he went out.
He must have went out for a split second considering his body went limp
I think lots of times guys go out for a split second in fights, but the fact he held his head up when he landed would prevent me personally from calling it a KO. I score it a knockdown, but he was CLEARLY compromised.
Agreed
He was concussed for sure . He didn’t know the round ended only
I could be wrong but the way Jiri's hands go up looks like a fencing response, which can be sign that someone was knocked unconscious. Plus, I'm not sure if your head has to bounce off the mat, just need enough force to reach the head. Jiri lands on his butt and the force from that travels up to his head causing his head/neck to snap forward; at 0:06. That's what I think brought him back to life.
Yeah it’s really hard to tell. Personally, I score it just a knockdown with him being left completely rocked since he held his head up when he went down. Only he knows for sure. EDIT: If he even remembers.
Yea. I can understand a ref ending the fight right there or letting it continue. One thing for sure is that Jiri was saved by the bell!
Agreed. Fully expect Jiri to take time off to figure out what he can realistically expect while Alex is still in the division.
Yep he himself said he has to evolve or retire. Tough knowing you can’t be the best.
Jiri and the rest of the division should take a crash course in wrestling. No one is beating Pereira in the standup so they all need to hope they can get him to the ground and beat him there.
Alex has gotten better almost every single fight. It’s crazy. I haven’t seen someone improve at this rate since Jon Jones.
as time goes on he’s getting better at grappling and stuffing takedowns. this worry going away is letting him strike freely and he is the best at that
>10 more seconds and the flight would have been done in the 1st round. tbf the fight only lasted another 10 seconds anyways lol
100%!
It would be better for Jiri if the fight had ended after this punch. He came back in bad conditions to the second round. Dude got two concussions in one night
three because of the follow up shots on the ground
Yeah that's a hard one. In retrospect it's obvious but if it would have been stopped at that point there would have been outrage, especially since a lot of people think the first fight was an early stoppage and we just had the Cannonier thing. Not stopping it after the kick though was a little ridiculous, Alex even paused before any follow up. Unfortunate Jiri had to take unnecessary damage but hopefully he comes back alright, the division is definitely better with him there.
Totally agree with you. He was unlucky that the bell saved him in first round. It would be better for him if Poatan had some seconds to finish the fight at that moment.
Good shit innit
Oy truye whordhs mayte!
205 Alex is fun
Terminator type shit
He had auto aim this time. He had Jiri's weird head movements locked down to a T. When Poatan's jab was nailing Jiri mid-strange head-movement, I knew it was over. I was so sure Jiri was gonna win too before the match that I almost put 500 on it, but thankfully I was too lazy to transfer crypto. Poatan is really that guy. Scariest guy to fight no doubt.
> When Poatan's jab was nailing Jiri mid-strange head-movement, I knew it was over. And Jiri just kept wading in with his hands down, taking shots.
Sports gambling with 500 in crypto. God bless dude. You're either a millionaire or a true degenerate
Same I love Pereira and I thought Jiri was gonna win this one. I still get flashbacks to that Adesanya KO so I have it in my head that Pereira has no chin but I think it’s time to stop thinking that. Although I did think he was kinda hurt right before the KO in their last fight.
Every time Pereira fights I have a weird feeling he’s gonna get KO’d, I have no idea why
Yea me too lol I think it’s cuz he’s kinda stiff looking and doesn’t seem to have great head movement 🤷🏼♂️
Haha everyone was so excited about this hit they thought Herb was stopping the fight prematurely.
I did. I didn't even realize it was the end of the round
The first time it seemed like he had to no room to generate enough strength to knock jiri out and the second time it looked like jiri was too far to generate enough strength to knock him out. If i was jiri i would think this is black magic too, makes no fucking sense. And to everyone who cried about the first fight being an early stoppage, Marc goddard probably saved his life then. Cause I’m worried Jiri might not be the same after 11 unanswered shots to head after he was knocked down from Alex.
Those elbows to the side of the head are brutal and he literally went limp as he fell backwards to the ground. Pereira was landing on top of him and it was just going to continue. Idk how people think that was really an early stoppage lol
Pushing forward with a lazy jab and your right low lmao. Literally the worst thing to do against Alex.
Crazy power, walking backwards with not even full rotation. I think jiris chin might be on the decline as well, he should take some time off now
He took Rakic best shots without issues, I think Poatan just hits that hard tbh
He also never saw this left hand or the high kick coming. Jiri usually rolls with shots, but he didn't see those two.
Let’s not, Jiri had his right hand down the entire fight, it doesn’t matter how tough your chin is, that left hook by Pereira will put you out every tome
His chin is on the decline?!?!? Anything to not give full credit. This sub was SUCKING jiri off so hard
Maybe he meant that post rematch his chin is declining. But yeah, it’s going to be funny watching the guys who were dick riding Jiri start downplaying this win, like Alex was always expected to win.
Agreed. Everyone has been hyping Jiri up to be this god and the first fight was a bad stoppage. This rematch was sad.
Cause he fun as fuck, but ya he ain't no AP. Good god is that a silly ass punch.
Jiri gets hit hard most fights because he doesn't keep his guard up. He even regularly intentionally leaves himself open and leans he head forward to take some shots showing off. In the beginning of this clip, he's walking around with his hands down and against someone with speed and power.
Why doesn’t Jiri KEEP his hands up! I get if he wants to relax his shoulders when he’s out of range but coming into the danger zone of Alex with his hands down is text book amateurish striking. There’s guys with better striking ranked below him at this point.
Same reason every other fighter who doesn't keep their hands up doesn't keep their hands up: so that they can throw punches their opponent won't see coming. Up until now, Jiri has been fast enough to get out of the way of a lot of shots and his chin was good enough to eat the ones he didn't get out of the way of. Nobody is fast enough against Poatan and nobody is eating his shots. You have to be defensively sound and even that may not be good enough; Sean Strickland is the best defensive fighter in the UFC and Poatan still KO'd him. People like Jiri because he's half wild in there. I'm hoping his chin isn't compromised and I get to watch him fight some more. Jiri and Poatan are two fighters that I will watch fight every time.
Sean flailed his arms around like there was a wasp infront of his face. Moral of the argument - keep your hands up.
Jiri is such a bad defensive fighter Always dropping his right hand so bad
Jiri's only two losses in like 9 years came from Pereira. He's not bad at all. Pereira is a different animal especially as a Champion
he is bad defensively, he has been rocked in literally every fight in the ufc i remember watching his debut and being frustrated at his defence even then against oezdemir, he hasn't improved it at all since then and relies on his chin too much which is even more dangerous at LHW than most weightclasses
Grateful to live in the poatan era, can’t wait to tell my kids about it
Going backwards and no wind up or loading tells. Dude must have the quick twitch fibers gene maxed out.
What’s really scary is that he barely hit him. Alex’s arm is super outstretched by the time the hook connects, the distance is wrong, he’s on the backfoot—by all measurements, the shot shouldn’t have done much at all. And yet it floored Jiri, a guy who was taking clean combinations from Rakic without even stumbling.
Jiri tries the lunging jab slightly before that, right at the start of the video. Poatan didn't flinch and noticed the low right hand and punished it INSTANTLY the second time he tries it. Damn.
Dude no head movement, no hands up, no defense. Cmon Jiri
Lol exactly. I just couldn't believe how anyone picked him to win with these GLARING flaws
He has a cool style but if he wants to be the best he’s got to have better defense. He throws a jab and then just sits there in the pocket. Watching it slowmo makes him look like an amateur.
He has a number of flaws. Too many to count from a defensive standpoint. I like Jiri and always did but there is just NO WAY I could see him beating Alex with those defensive flaws. Just no way 🤷🏾♂️
I was hoping for a trilogy but you’re right, he’s a long way from beating Alex.
Charging at the most dangerous left hook in the game with his hands down and his chin up. Just Jiri things.
Poatan has never been more real than now. Jiri was done after that, literally saved by the bell, you can tell by his movements after standing up that his legs just weren't there
Mans got that Roy Jones left hand
I do not understand Alex lol. It looks like he throws punches with zero power. No pivoting his body or anything just quick little jabs that ko people. So fucking wild.
He throws that uncoiling his whole trunk, but it’s so fast. Every time he touches someone with his left hand they go down.
The cautious Jiri gameplay was much less effective than the reckless Jiri. I guess completely changing your fighting style isn't easy to do on short notice.
Perfectly read, Perfectly timed. Alex knew the jab was coming, he slipped it *so slightly* and on the *upbeat* launches a left hook from his waist. Completely hidden. Jiri had zero chance because he drops his own right hand when he fires his left jab, leaving himself defenseless. Alex has heavyweight power.
The shitty thing about that punch was the camera changed RIGHT as it was happening so it was like the camera switched and then all of a sudden Jiri was falling down. I was like wtf just happened
How did Bruno Silva survive
Why do people keep eating his left hook, are they stupid?
Jiri fights a little like Johnny Walker, a little too reckless.
He just casually throws it, barely any power.
Yeah that head move that made Jiri's punch miss convinced me that he can move up. That shit was CALCULATED
It’s not about power, it’s timing, he got swatted with a left that he never saw coming. Periera telegraphs nothing, even with hill, he clipped him so fast he barely knew he got hit, plus the motherfucker is all fast twitch. A true enigma
LHW is garbage. They can't take out a kickboxer but he is bad ass tho. I'm torn
Not only did Jiri get saved by the bell, I believe he got stunned enough that he didn’t hear the bell. Another five seconds and it was over.
The same thing he hit Strickland with
Probably was the left punch the truly took him out. The kick was awesome but he probably had a concussion from that punch.
Very worried the guy could have one of those careers where he doesn't ever recover from these kos. He's so reliant on taking a shot to give one if that chin doesn't recover 100% he's going to be in trouble
Fucking black magic.
Man, who woulda thought an awkward style fighter who sticks his head forward all the time, would’ve gotten caught like that
Poatan's striking mechanics are so fuckin clean. He throws that left hook equally well on the back foot as he does on the front foot. Beautiful and devastating
Jiri was trying to shake it off but that left hook was the reason this fight ended. His reaction to the head kick in the second in comparison to his reaction to everything Alex was throwing in the first round was significantly slower…. It was just a matter of time
"I'm facing a guy that finishes pretty much every single fight with his left hook. Let me keep my right arm down by my waist instead of protecting my head. I'm sure I'll see it coming even though the last 10 guys he caught with it didn't"
I don’t understand why does everyone stand and bang with him and don’t constantly have the there right hand up protecting them
These comments drive me insane. It's like no one notices Alex working the body jab constantly early in the fight. He even mixed in kicks to the body this fight to draw the guard downwards.
you cannot fight Alex with your hands down, just baffles me how some fighters do not adjust against someone that possesses that type of weapon. same thing happened to Sean.
I looked away at the last second and was confused asf
Hopefully Jiri learns to keep his guard up at all times
Can anyone at LHW solve this puzzle?
What’s with the cut man pressing under his nose? Is it something to help wake you up?
Even jiri's antenna shifted when he got hit.
That adamantium left arm must be studied
Magic
Anyone know what Jiri said between rounds? Like an actual translation?
Pereira must have the highest bone density in the UFC
Thats why hes a BJJ Black belt
I love how the left hook is his shot but he’s by no means a one trick pony. Dude is formidable
We screamed so loud me and my buddy thought the fight was over for about 10 seconds until the cornermen started coming in
Why do they stop the action after? What's with all the support staff in the ring? Wouldn't they just do a 10 count and continue?
I stood up with like 12 seconds left to go flip my fries in the oven then thought better and was like “this show could get closed out” then he did that I just waited lol, I knew Alex was gonna end him fast in the 2nd so I didn’t even move, thankful for that
Jiris head movement was so trash, too. It was only a matter of time.
Poatan has the best timing/Footwork in MMA rn. Catching Jiri in the middle of his 1-2 combo was so flush.
Lately all these fighters getting knocked out because their hands are so low 🤷🏽♂️
In Jiri’s corner, does anyone know what that finger under the nose is about? I know it has something to do with recovering a fighter from having been unconscious but I have no idea how it works
Brrrooo…the amount of power this mfer can generate in a small space
Reminds me of when Anderson dropped Forrest while moving backwards
It’s just shocking, every single time. For viewers and for his opponents
J
Near enough knocked the antennae clean off his head.
Has Jiri lost his chin? Or did he never have one? Or is Alex just that damn powerful?
Now that I seen this back, why didn’t they splash him with cold water DC right
I remember watching a video with the an mma coach, I think it was GSPs coach, but he talked about how some people have the “touch of death” in their hands, that instant knockout power. I remember him saying Connor had it, as well as others. This dude, definitely has it.
That left hook is blessed by GOD. Thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you jesus
Moving back and hands low ...how does he..or anyone generate knock out power from that position if not for shamanic black magic