Just watched the fight. You came through a battle with a good striker. Lovely finish. Tough fight. Excellent work.
Good fight. Solid gameplan against a fighter who was better than you in one area. It's always difficult to fight sluggers like that because they know they're not technically gifted but have a natural loose power that means that if they put their chin down and kept moving forwards they can cause you problems. Opponent's like this teach you a lot, and you'll grow because of it. I imagine you'll be doing a lot of boxing work now, and with your head and shoulders loosened up and a stronger jab you'll be very dangerous.
Cheers guys. Like I said, I can do all the things that I didn't do, but the added pressure of fighting does make it more difficult. There were a few times I could have thrown knees but they were not allowed (to the head, body was fine) and that was very frustrating. Anyway, come now! Critique and help me improve
I spotted you angling for knee shots, but you just couldn't quite get the timing. It's easy to be outside of actual combat, taking a breather and relaxing just that little too much and we saw this with you taking a few haymakers. I do tell my students (not ring fighters) that when outside of striking range to relax, but remain in the fight. Hit, away, relax, yet keep guarded and ready to move, defend, strike etc. All easy from a comfy armchair. I think that many of us non competitive martial artists could learn from this. All to often it's a case of "do a technique on the pads, get some disruption from the pad holder, relax, then do it again". The padman/sparring partner has to keep you in the fight and switched on, even when out of range as that range is eaten up all too quickly.
Awesome fight man! Those kicks looked incredibly vicious (you could see the other guy was cut up on the nose and shin from them). It was pretty great you recognised he had better hands (especially at short range), yet you seemed to maintain dominance and positional control using your powerful kicks and grappling ability. I reckon you are short changing yourself, although he caught you in a flurry or two I think you had certainly showed to be the better fighter. Also I know this doesn't mean much towards the fight itself but I thought it was great that you and your opponent were caught in such a slugfest, yet managed to be so respectful towards each other at the end!
Cheers man! Yeah the guy was lovely, and at the end of the day it's just a fight. He was going to take me out! But I had to go home
Just watched the better quality video. That was a real tear-up! Congratulations on a good win and a nice finish. I'm sure there are lots of things that you will learn from this fight, especially about how to deal with a good solid puncher. He was clearly quite an awkward opponent for you, but you adapted well to counter his style. What really impressed me was how much better you were dealing with him in the 2nd round compared to the first. It's like you really took a lot on board during the break! I think in any sport, changing your tactics during a contest is one of the hardest things to do, and you did it beautifully. The commentators pointed out how you were targetting his lead leg with low kicks, but what was also noticable was that your high guard was much improved in the 2nd round, it looked a lot more solid. You looked more confident in blocking his punches rather than just trying to get your head out of the way. I think you could work on stepping off the line more, changing your angles, but I'm sure you already mentioned that earlier in the thread.