Tag: UFC Live 6

Pat Barry: Lifetime of Training Helps Battling Stefan Struve’s Height, Reach

Filed under: UFC, NewsAt 6-foot-11, Stefan Struve towers over every fighter in the UFC; he’s the tallest competitor fighting under the organization’s banner. Meanwhile, his Saturday night opponent, Pat Barry, is 5-foot-11. That height differential will…

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At 6-foot-11, Stefan Struve towers over every fighter in the UFC; he’s the tallest competitor fighting under the organization’s banner. Meanwhile, his Saturday night opponent, Pat Barry, is 5-foot-11. That height differential will make for an interesting visual at UFC Live 6, and it will also make for a difficult obstacle for Barry to overcome.

Reaching his high target will be no easy feat for Barry, who with a 74.5-inch reach, will have a nearly 10-inch disadvantage in that category. But Barry has no concerns about what appears to be a daunting challenge. In fact, he says that the fight is no different than any other for either him or Struve.

“I’m accustomed to guys being taller than I am whereas Stefan is accustomed to guys being shorter than he is,” Barry said recently. “So, like this is going to like play into our games, into our strategies, into our timing, reach, distance. Like this is going to play directly into what we’ve been training for every day since we started the job, like since we started this sport.

“So I don’t think it’s going to … I don’t think this fight is going to make it any different,” he continued. “I mean, like I said, I don’t think he’s run across any – I don’t think there’s any 9-foot-tall kickboxers. It’s something that his lifetime of training has prepared him for.”

On Thursday, the two squared up for the first time for a pre-fight staredown photo opportunity, and yes, the shot looked a bit comedic. The two could barely keep straight faces, with both cracking smiles and laughing.

Part of those loose attitudes stem from their past, as the two have known each other for a few years and get along well outside of the cage. It has allowed them to fire off one-liners at each other all throughout the leadup to the bout, and on Thursday, Struve got in the best line at the pre-fight press conference.

When asked how he expected to defend Barry’s high kicks, Struve nonchalantly answered, “Block it with my shin,” a response that drew laughter from the fighters and media.

Earlier, Barry even poked fun at himself, saying when it came to ground skills, Struve could “lay on the ground and submit me while I was standing straight up.”

But when the laughter ends and business gets serious, the two are expected to have one of the night’s most intriguing fights, not only because of the size and reach differential, but because of their respective kickboxing backgrounds.

Barry has worked hard in his recent camps to round out his game, working wrestling and jiu-jitsu with his new DeathClutch teammates, including former UFC champ Brock Lesnar and current Bellator champ Cole Konrad.

Meanwhile, Struve said he spent time sharpening up his striking, including working with renowned Romanian kickboxer Daniel Ghita.

So there is at least a friendly rivalry over who is the better striker, and neither man will want to be the first to try to take it to the ground. But “friendly” is the key word here. It’s not personal for either one. At least on the surface, it’s a test of everything that’s come before. For Barry, the challenge is simple physics. And for Struve, it’s beating Barry at his own game.

“I think that this could turn out to be a really awesome fight to where really when it comes down to it, my short arms won’t matter,” Barry said. “With his really long arms might, we might cancel each other out in a way and it might stand there and take a long time for the fight to get finished or maybe he can keep me on the end of a jab the way, you know, people eventually started keeping Mike Tyson away from them with a jab. Like, who knows? I mean it could be a little bit of anything. Anything could happen that night. So I mean range, it can be good, but at the same time it can be bad, too.”

 

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UFC Live 6 Main Event Breakdown: Dominick Cruz vs. Demetrious Johnson

Filed under: UFCIt’s been four years since a UFC championship has been defended on basic cable TV, a streak that will end on Saturday when bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz attempts to hold onto his belt and thwart the challenge of Demetrious Johnson…

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It’s been four years since a UFC championship has been defended on basic cable TV, a streak that will end on Saturday when bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz attempts to hold onto his belt and thwart the challenge of Demetrious Johnson.

The matchup, broadcast on Versus, likely boasts the speediest pair of fighters ever matched for a UFC title. Cruz is known for his fancy footwork and ability to weave in and out of striking distance, while the 5-foot-3 Johnson expertly navigates reach differentials with his own swift feet.

Cruz has been likened to Lyoto Machida in that he has an unconventional style that is relatively difficult to emulate and causes matchup difficulties. But apart from that similarity, their styles are actually quite different. While Machida tends to be very still, leans back out of punching range and waits to aggressively move in for a killshot, Cruz’s success is built on his endless movement, flurries of activity and ability to seamlessly transition from standup to takedowns.

It’s this unique set of skills that awaits Johnson as a challenge.

For at least part of it, Johnson is at least on paper, equipped. Much like Cruz, Johnson spent his high school years as a wrestler. That’s shown offensively, as Johnson has successfully completed 74 percent of his takedowns, according to FightMetric.

Defensively, however, Johnson has had some difficulties. He’s only stopped 46 percent of attempts against him. Given the frequency of Cruz’s takedown tries (he’s scored 31 takedowns in his last six fights), Johnson will have to do much better than that to give himself a chance to win.

On their feet, things get trickier. An interesting note about Cruz is that for all the accolades his striking receives, he’s not a particularly accurate striker. In fact, he’s below average when it comes to connection percentage, landing only 29 percent of his thrown strikes. That probably comes as a surprising statistic to many who constantly hear about Cruz’s standup brilliance.

In reality, Cruz’s striking success is based on volume and relentlessness above all else. Take his most recent title defense against Urijah Faber, for example. In the bout, Cruz out-landed Faber 97-53 overall. However, again, Cruz connected on just 39.4 percent of his strikes.

For all his activity, Cruz rarely offers opponents a chance to hit him in flush in return. Faber, for example, scored on just 32 percent of his shots. While Faber arguably landed the bigger shots, they were fewer and farther between, and Cruz’s offensive aggression makes an impact in the minds of the judges.

We’ve seen a trend recently of opponents trying to engage Cruz in tight. Since he’s not considered a power puncher, foes are willing to sit back, let the right-hander wade in towards them and fire back power shots as he steps into range. Both Faber and his Team Alpha Male teammate Joseph Benavidez employed that kind of strategy, often keying on his kicks.

For Johnson, it would be a bit trickier, because while he has the speed to employ it, he hasn’t shown the power to make that kind of attack the right one for him. That plan tends to be a risky proposition. When Cruz attacks first, there will usually be at least 3-4 strikes coming, and you might only get to fire off one in return. That almost ensures you’ll lose the flurry in the eyes of the judges (barring a knockdown or flush strike), and over the course of the round, those types of exchanges will add up in his favor, as they have over and over.

Johnson has so far in his UFC/WEC career flashed an impressive mix of striking accuracy and defense. He has successfully landed 51 percent of his strikes, and despite his usual reach disadvantage, he rarely gets hit. One interesting stat is that he only absorbs 0.98 strikes per minute, a number which would rank him No. 2 for best defense in the UFC if he had enough fights to qualify him for the leaderboard. By comparison, Cruz absorbs 1.75 strikes per minute.

Cruz is about a 5-to-1 favorite, and that number is a little too big for a fighter who goes to decisions so often. His game is well equipped to win either a striking, wrestling or ground battle, but he’s never shown the ability to overwhelm a foe except in volume. Johnson is one of the few bantamweights in the world who may be faster than Cruz and can match his gas tank. Because of that, I expect this fight to be more competitive than the line indicates.

The key factor in this bout may not end up being speed or striking, but Cruz’s takedown defense. Johnson’s wrestling doesn’t get a ton of notice, but since losing his WEC debut, he’s scored 23 takedowns in four fights, successfully completing 74.1 percent of his tries. It was his wrestling that helped him win his two biggest fights, and we shouldn’t expect him to abandon it now. Keeping Johnson at the end of his leg kicks will help Cruz in that regard, along with his natural gifts.

The wrestling game will stalemate at times, leading this fight to be decided standing. As usual, Cruz’s flurries and pace will offer him an advantage there. If Johnson tries to be a counter-fighter, he’ll suffer the same fate as Faber and the rest, caught up in the numbers game. If he comes forward, his chances are better, but crossing the distance will leave him open to counters. Johnson is going to have his moments, but fighting from range is Cruz’s specialty, and that’s where most of this fight will be decided. Cruz via decision.

 

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Cruz Resets for Title Bout, While Johnson Hopes to Complete Underdog Story

Filed under: UFC, NewsOn the surface, Dominick Cruz has settled into the role of champion nicely. He’s successfully defended the bantamweight title three times, established himself as one of the sport’s pound-for-pound best fighters, and headlines his …

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On the surface, Dominick Cruz has settled into the role of champion nicely. He’s successfully defended the bantamweight title three times, established himself as one of the sport’s pound-for-pound best fighters, and headlines his second straight UFC event at Saturday night’s UFC Live: Cruz vs. Johnson.

Yet Cruz seems to go out of his way to remind himself that it can all change in an instant. He hasn’t splurged on a big house or fancy car. Instead, he lives on the cheap and saves his money for a rainy day that might never come. Those reminders serve as motivation for training, and the mindset extends even to his most prized possession: his title belt.

“Really, I’m not going out there to defend anything. I’m going out there to win something new every single time I go out and fight for a title,” he said in a Thursday press conference from the Newseum in Washington D.C. “I don’t own anything. It’s always up for grabs, so I have to always stay on top and stay focused and go out there to win something new, so that’s it. This will be like my first time winning it.”

Should Cruz beat Demetrious Johnson (10-1) on Saturday, it may feel like a first time for him, but it would mark his fourth straight defense of the 135-pound belt, surpassing the three successful defenses made by Miguel Torres when the belt was a WEC property.

Cruz has done it with a style all his own, mixing active striking and strong wrestling with endless stamina to wear down opponents over time. Overall, he’s won nine straight, and on the strength of his 18-1 overall record, his .948 winning percentage is among the best in major MMA.

Rather than falling complacent though, Cruz continually surveys the landscape of his division and considers the oncoming challengers.

“Success feels good,” he said. “I’m a fighter and this is what I do. I love to do it. I love my job. It’s easy to stay motivated if you see all these maniacs coming up in my division. They all want to beat me up. What other motivation do I need?”

In Johnson, Cruz may be facing the fastest opponent he’s ever faced. At just 5-foot-3 and with a 66-inch reach, Johnson has some distance to navigate, but if anyone can figure it out how to make an unlikely journey, it’s the man that’s nicknamed “Mighty Mouse.”

Johnson’s rise to one of the division’s best has been a largely untold story, though it is one worth telling. He’s not a pedigreed athlete with a following who got major breaks along the way. Though he wrestled throughout high school, he was never a state champion, and he had no other martial arts training when he first walked into a gym in October 2005, after watching the first season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Johnson grinded his way through the northwest regional circuit before debuting tin the WEC, and then he promptly dropped his first fight by decision. The setback hardly set him back, however, and he ran off a streak, winning four straight to earn a shot at Cruz. In his last two fights, he beat Miguel Torres and Kid Yamamoto, who were at one time the best lighter weight fighters in the world. Now Johnson has a chance to join those ranks, but there aren’t a lot of believers out there; Cruz is as much as a 5-to-1 favorite.

“Story of my life,” Johnson said. “I’m the smallest guy probably in the UFC. It is what it is. Everyone sees me as an underdog. I don’t mind. It is what it is. Like I say, story of my life.”

Yet Johnson is every bit the story of determination as Cruz. Until recently, he held a full-time job in a Tacoma, Washington recycling plant. During his May win over Torres, he suffered a broken bone in his leg, but he was still back to work at the plant on the following Monday. After accepting the title bout with Cruz, he gave up the job to prepare for the biggest opportunity of his life.

Like an underdog out of central casting, Johnson is quiet and polite in addition to being small. The UFC sat him next to 6-foot-11 Stefan Struve on Thursday, further highlighting just how small he is. He didn’t say much on Thursday, and even when he was asked questions, he often clipped his answer short when you had the feeling he might have had a little bit more to say. Like Cruz, perhaps he is holding it back for when it truly matters.

“You guys have all seen me fight, and you know what I do,” he said. “I come out and bring the pace and I do my job. I prepare myself to win.”

 

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