‘Fight Island’ 5 Sober PBP: Sandhagen’s stance switching was key | UFC Betting Sites

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Cory Sandhagen put on a masterful performance of punch entries, and stance switching.

Let’s talk about another sport for a second. Let’s talk about hockey. Sports, like organisms, change over time. And for the longest time hockey was a sport of two zones. You had the offensive zone for the attacking team, and the defensive zone for the defending team. If you wanted to attack, you had 75 feet of ice to “get pucks in deep.” If you needed to defend, you had 75 feet to “block shots and throw the body.” Thankfully, the game changed.

In the modern game, that fifty feet of ice connecting the offensive and defensive zones has become a lot more important. And now, even though your talking heads (and Don Cherry ectoplasms) still echo these old cliches, the fact is that dumping the puck in and “battling” to get the puck deep only leads to a shot twenty-five percent of the time. What teams really want is to make a clean transition through those fifty feet sandwiched between the other 75 feet of ice on either side. And that’s why six in ten goals are scored within seven seconds of entering the offensive zone.

I mention this dynamic because mixed martial arts has undergone a similar change. Think of ‘the zone’ as ‘within striking distance’ and this hockey concept of entries and exits makes sense. Especially for hockey nerds like myself.

On my first watch of the UFC Fight Island 5 main event, I didn’t think there was anything special to process. In part, I was still thinking about Joaquin Buckley’s insane Tekken knockout victory. But other than that, it just looked like Cory Sandhagen dumpstered Marlon Moraes with almost no effort.

What was there to learn on a second time through?

But first, a quick word about stance switching

Remember all that hockey mumbo jumbo I just talked about? I’m gonna return to it. Historically, MMA fighters have struggled to ‘enter the zone.’ It’s not the fighter’s fault. It’s just a function of being an extremely new fight sport. But there’s something else that contributes to bad punch entries: not having access to good punch entries to begin with.

Unlike boxing, where a fighter is forced to figure out the best way to enter the zone to land punches, and the best way to exit the zone to avoid punches, MMA fighters can get away with only exiting the zone. This leaves even the best strikers in fight limbo. Silva vs. Maia anyone?

Of course, that doesn’t mean these aren’t problems even in boxing. There’s a reason Marvin Hagler stands out as one of the greats. And it’s because (among many other things) he was a master at entering the zone. But unlike in MMA, where fighters switch stances to setup or avoid strikes with ‘different looks’, Hagler would use stance switching in transition; catching opponents exiting the zone with his strong side no matter the angle they took to do so.

Some guys have figured out this entry/exit dynamic. Adesanya comes to mind, but so does Max Holloway (as Connor Ruebusch once noted). St-Pierre wasn’t a stance-smith, but his superman punch really defined his entries in a way no other fighter was capable of at the time. It seems trainers didn’t find GSP’s meta useful, however, to the point where it’s considered more an anachronism than anything.

That, in and of itself, seems strange. Techniques provide varying degrees of efficiency. Very rarely is a technique just completely abandoned. Were Cory’s techniques eccentric? Or a sign of fight evolution? That’s a broader question for another day. But boy did Cory’s entry/exit game do a ton of work in this bout.

From Orthodox to Southpaw: Success in both zones

The first thing that’s readily apparent was that Moraes seemed completely lost on what to do with Cory’s height. Two things happen as Sandhagen switches stances. One: Sandhagen is attacking. And two: Moraes is not countering. The Brazilian has made his fight money by being excellent on the crackback. Against guys like Dodson, Aldo, Rivera, and Assuncao, Moraes proved himself capable of adjusting. But against Sandhagen? He was immediately flustered. The only offense of note was an overhand right when Cory would enter the zone, and a bodykick when Cory would switch stances.

Sandhagen took incredible advantage of both stances, assuming different profiles for each. To begin, he was more authoritative from the orthodox stance in round one. He had a ton of options to release: check left hook/jab combo. A lead left hook. Lead uppercut. Leg kick/uppercut combo. There weren’t a ton of combinations, but he was active in both stances, often throwing out ‘feelers’. It’s something Paul Felder noted on the broadcast.

One of the things Sandhagen does so well is he puts, just touches. That inside leg kick. He didn’t try to hurt him with that, that was a set up.

His southpaw work seemed focused on drawing out attacks with a pawing jab. But for the most part, it was the work from orthodox that seemed to pay the most dividends. And whenever Cory returned fire, Moraes had no real entries to work with. How does Moraes counter a 5’11 striker who just landed a jab/spinning backfist combo? Or a leg kick/right knee to the body?

There’s a point where Sandhagen switched to southpaw in order to throw a jab, but then he doubled up on the jab and landed a crisp body kick on the follow up.

When Cory opened the second round, he started out aggressively in the southpaw stance, and opened up with some jabs—even landing a question mark kick that seemed to spell doom. I’d go so far as to say that whether it was a wheelkick, spinning roundhouse, or rolling thunder, it wouldn’t have mattered.

I counted fourteen stance switches from Cory Sandhagen in round two. Think about that from Moraes’ perspective. That means every four and half seconds, he was either getting attacked from a different angle, or had to counter with a different angle.

It wasn’t like Cory was doing nothing. He threw 22 strikes during that window. The final sequence? An jab from the orthodox stance, jab, switch to southpaw, switch to orthodox for a jab/low kick combo. Then the wheelkick.

What lies ahead

Moraes got absolutely blown out in this fight. It’s the kind of performance that makes me question where he goes from here. Personally, I still believe in Moraes’ ability to remain a contender. I think this loss says more about how far reactionary brawling can take you, than whether Moraes is “done” as an elite contender.

As for Sandhagen, it was a hell of a performance. There are still questions about his ground game. And unlike Adesanya, Cory doesn’t move as well laterally, which makes him more prone to getting countered. Still, his ability to pressure the zone from different positions without sacrificing his shot selection was huge—and a pretty good sign that Sandhagen is for real.