How We Got Here

The news that T.J. Dillashaw had been caught red handed for use of EPO threw the MMA world into turmoil. While fighters have been caught for EPO before by commission testing—notably Ali Bagautinov—Dillashaw was the first that USADA had caught in its partnership with the UFC. EPO use is notoriously difficult to prove but this announcement came with an assurance that advances had been made in testing protocol. Even so, Dillashaw had made his way to the top of the sport and had always maintained a furious work rate and kept it up through rounds—it seemed extremely unlikely that this was a recent dabbling with EPO for the fun of it. Not only was Dillashaw’s legacy now in tatters, a suspicious glare had to be cast over any other fighter competing at the highest levels whose gas tank stood out.

But something positive came out of Dillashaw’s fall on the battlefield of public expectation. The UFC scrambled to put together a fight for the vacant bantamweight title and, for the first time since 2014 a UFC 135 pound title fight came into being that has nothing at all to do with Team Alpha Male and its various beefs. Two intriguing, worthy contenders are set to decide who gets the belt and to be honest the substitution of Dillashaw or Garbrandt or Cruz would do nothing to make it any more intriguing.

Marlon Moraes was half of World Series of Fighting’s appeal, with the other half being Justin Gaethje. The two were long serving champions for the organisation and while Gaethje made his UFC debut to thunderous applause and earned an impressive victory, Moraes’ UFC debut barely raised a golf clap. He met the confounding and aggressively boring Raphael Assuncao in what could in pro wrestling parlance be called a “burial”. In spite of his hype train stalling, Moraes rebounded with a split decision over John Dodson, and then bounced into the streak of devastating stoppages which carried him to his current position as number one contender.

Henry Cejudo has done nothing in the bantamweight division since he was sent up there for a single fight as a punishment for missing weight in 2014. The circumstances that have brought him here are remarkable. He bested Demetrious Johnson in a five round clash to win the flyweight title and immediately accepted the fight with T.J. Dillashaw that Johnson had always declined. Dillashaw was the bantamweight champ but wanted more silverware and insisted he would drop down to flyweight. Cejudo stunned and finished Dillashaw in the first minute of the fight but the bantamweight title was not at stake. This left Cejudo with a victory over the world’s best bantamweight and nothing to show for it. As it seemed like the UFC wanted to do away with the flyweight division a rematch for the bantamweight title seemed the most likely course of action… and then USADA intervened.

The Open Guard Conundrum

Earlier this week I made a Filthy Casual’s Guide to Cejudo and highlighted the improvements in Cejudo’s striking game since his change of striking coaches around the Benavidez fight. The focus of the study was on Cejudo’s longer stance and attempts to draw his opponent out. He likes to fight from Open Position or Open Guard—that is to say: mirroring his opponent’s stance, southpaw vs orthodox or orthodox vs southpaw. This allows him to throw a body kick into the opponent’s open side and sneak high kicks through if they begin to reach down to the body kick. It also means he can slide back towards his power side, attempting to draw the opponent’s right hand out into an over-extension, which he can then counter over the top.