More Footwork = More Takedowns

The Patron Saint of ground and pound got beat up this Saturday. We’re going to look at why he couldn't get his game going and what else he could have done.

Now let’s get into it.

Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez is one of my favorite fighters to watch. He’s not the biggest, fastest, nor the most technical. But he is supremely violent.

Most of Fluffy’s fights look something like this.

Fluffy routinely pushes people past their breaking point by switching between wrestling, striking, and submission threats. I don’t think you can find a better example of how to hurt people on the fence and floor in modern MMA.

Unfortunately for Fluffy, the sequence above was really the only time he got his game going on Saturday.

Fluffy is at his best when he’s going up and down with punches and takedown attempts. He uses simple combinations like a jab-cross or a double jab-cross to get his opponent’s hands up so he can shoot on their hips.

Usually Fluffy repeats this procedure until his opponent gets tired and falls over. Not Robocop.

Other than hitting Fluffy’s gut whenever he got an opportunity, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt gave Fluffy two major problems this weekend. The first was technical.

Robocop did a great job keeping his knee active in between him and Fluffy when Fluffy picked up a single leg.

With Fluffy’s hands sliding further and further down Robocop’s thigh he would have had to go all the way down the leg and pull Robocop off the fence to finish the single. But that’s not Fluffy’s game. He wants to be in his opponent’s grill wearing them out.

The second problem was more structural than anything. Robocop dwarfed Fluffy. Plus he resembles a looksmaxxing Obama bodybuilder while Fluffy got his nickname because he was a chubby kid. That means that even when Fluffy was able to get all the way inside he couldn’t do much to disrupt Robocop’s posture and move him around.

Fluffy is literally standing up so tall he’s starting to bend over backwards and while Robocop is still standing strong, able to move athletically. And in between the grappling exchanges Robocop dropped Fluffy 3 times with leg kicks in the second round.

Let’s move on to some things you can do if your single leg is stalling on the fence.

Fluffy did a good job getting the fight to the fence. He did not do a good job of bringing his feet with him. That often left him bent over in a position where he couldn’t move Robocop around or lift him. He had to drop on doubles to pull Robocop’s legs out.

As you can see, dropping on bad doubles against the fence only has so much utility. Look at the difference between Fluffy’s foot position on the fence with a single leg versus someone like Islam Makhachev.

Both men’s grips are high and tight but Islam’s feet are under his hips and shoulders. He has mobility and strength to do things like this.

You might be thinking that part of the reason Fluffy got stuck is because Robocop kept his knee active in between him and Fluffy. You’re not wrong but the exchange shouldn’t stop there.

When your opponent stops your single leg it’s the perfect opportunity to climb to a body lock.

Fluffy climbed to a body lock a few times but, again, he was not mobile in the position. You need to use body locks to lean on your opponent and force them to move around. That disrupts their balance, makes their feet light, and opens up opportunities for various trips.

And you don’t have to stay in front of someone as you switch from a single leg to a body lock. You can climb your opponent’s spine and crawl behind them much like Merab Dvalishvili does.

See how Merab is using his legs to harass Sandhagen’s stance while changing the angle? This is why Merab is such a nightmare on the fence.

With this win I’d like to see Robocop in a fight with someone like Brendan Allen, Caio Borralho, or Dricus Du Plessis if the former champion wants to stay busy. He has to be one good win away from a title shot.

Fluffy has a tough road ahead.

He can probably beat every middleweight outside of the top 5 but he’s run into the limits of his physicality. He needs to improve his striking in the center of the cage so he can do more damage before pushing people into his area of excellence. Some basic jabs and straights to the body would make his cardio killing style that much more effective.

Now let’s talk about something to look forward to this week.

Road To UFC is the company’s talent pipeline for fighters from Asia and Oceania. Every season features tournaments across four weight classes to get men and women to the UFC.

Road to UFC is responsible for bringing Rei Tsuruya, Lawrence Lui, and Nyamjargal Tumendemberel to the UFC. This season features Rei Tsuruya’s training partner. The submission savant Takeru Uchida.

The Japanese flyweight has 11 professional fights and every single one has ended in submission.

The definition of live by the sword, die by the sword. But heres the interesting quirk. Uchida actually fought in the first season of Road to UFC in a non-tournament bout against Shaun Etchell.

Uchida fights Friday in the semifinals of this season’s flyweight tournament.

If you want to learn what makes Takeru Uchida special you’ll need to upgrade to a Paid Subscription. A Paid Subscription gives you access to my full archive and extra analysis every week. It’s only $5/month, you can cancel whenever you want, and you can try a week for free if you click here.