We just had a boxing and MMA weekend where undefeated Josh Taylor stepped into the ring to defend his WBO and The Ring light-welterweight belts against the former unified lightweight world champion, Teofimo Lopez. Meanwhile, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, hosted UFC 289, where women's GOAT Amanda Nunes put her women's bantamweight title on the line against Irene Aldana. Additionally, former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira clashed with Beneil Dariush in a high-stakes showdown to determine the number one contender for the UFC lightweight championship.
Taylor reigned as the undisputed light-welterweight champion from May 2021 to May 2022, unifying all four major titles in the division. He was the bigger, more aggressive fighter and the favorite going into this match.
Lopez reached the pinnacle of his career, beating number one pound-for-pound boxer Vasiliy Lomachenko for the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and The Ring lightweight titles. Then he suffered his first loss to George Kambosos, Jr., followed by lackluster victories against Pedro Campa and Sandor Martin at light-welterweight. There were justified questions about Lopez's motivation, coaching, and mental health going into this match.
However, when the fight played out, Lopez won a dominant decision and fought like the favorite. Much of Lopez's success came from adjusting to Taylor and nullifying his southpaw jab.
Taylor perceives with his jab and his gloves. When Lopez began swatting his lead hand down, Taylor had a hard time finding Lopez. When Taylor put up his high guard, he was surprised by Lopez's power, and Lopez understood that once he touched those sensors, an overhand would come, which he either rolled with, backed away from, or was able to eat because he saw it coming.
Without his jab, Taylor was like a driver who couldn't see oncoming traffic. He hoped for the best but ended up getting hit.
Amanda Nunes went into the fight a favorite, with some analysts predicting an upset. Much like Lopez, there were questions about her motivation and coaching. However, when you're the women's GOAT and have the victories and accolades she has, the intimidation for her opponents starts before the match begins.
Aldana, who had won three out of her last four, all by finishes, looked to be riding a Mexican wave of new champions. But when the punching began, Nunes was better than her in every facet of MMA. The scorecards were 50-44, 50-44, and 50-43, but the domination can't just be explained by a difference in skills. Nunes fought well, but Aldana fought worse than she ever had. She fought with a guard that was so defensive, it made it difficult to see, difficult to punch, and difficult to stop takedowns.
So much of fighting is the ability to see your opponent and the inability for your opponent to see you or your offense. Aldana was in no position to see or deceive.
From the reactions from her corner, this did not seem like the game plan they had worked on. Fighting is tactics and strategy, but how can one implement their plan without de-escalating their stress arousal and regulating their emotions? As much as hardcores nerd out on strategy, psychology still plays a significant role in professional combat sports. On the other hand, Miranda Maverick was given motivation by her corner when what she seemed to need was new strategies. Wayfinding doesn't just apply to practitioners; it's even more important for coaches, as they're the ones who not only need to design the training processes but also orient themselves to each individual fighter's context.
However, with the victory over Aldana and her illustrious career, Nunes retired as the greatest female MMA fighter and one of the greatest to ever put on MMA gloves.
Going into the co-main, Beneil Dariush was on an eight-fight win streak. He was already the uncrowned number-one contender and was the favorite to beat a shopworn Charles Oliveira, who had been in four consecutive title fights and in the UFC since 2010. Yet Oliveira stopped Dariush in less than a round and made him look silly doing it.
Oliveira is one of the rare MMA strikers who likes to fight from in close because he does not fear the takedowns. That simplifies his job because he doesn't have to worry about maintaining distance but only disrespecting his opponent's time-space.
Dariush also likes to fight in close, but Oliveira was better at it. Oliveira eliminated time and space, which had Dariush eating shots until they clinched. Dariush then got a body lock takedown with little resistance from Oliveira. On the ground, it was still Oliveira controlling time-space, not only landing the cleaner strikes from the bottom but making Dariush miss his ground and pound by swiveling from side to side while anchoring himself to Dariush's waist. Oliveira's legs told him where Dariush was punching because they sensed how Dariush was twisting.
When Oliveira had enough of beating up Dariush off of his back, he got up. Then he hurt Dariush with a punch-kick combination. Oliveira threw the right straight to blind Dariush, then followed up with a high kick.
Up against the fence, Dariush's broke stance. But rather than orienting to Oliveira, he oriented to the fence and circled away along the fence rather than backing away in stance while facing Oliveira. Dariush got dropped with a book and tried to scramble, but with the punishment he had already taken and with Oliveira overloading his processing system, Dariush was stuck and finished with strikes.
When you're in close, it's hard to see. Stand really close to a painting and see how much of it you can take in. It won't be much. Dariush is used to fighting from this range where he can't see, but neither can his opponent, and he usually comes out on top because he lacks hesitation. Unfortunately for him, Oliveira can still perceive from this range and easily avoided his shots while landing his own. One key difference is that Dariush doesn't bother looking, while Oliveira still has his eyes on his opponent while also relying on other forms of perception like touch and expectations. In fact, there were times Oliveira was holding Dariush's wrist, negating his ability to block, but Dariush didn't notice.
Dariush and many analysts assumed they'd be fighting in the dark, with Dariush coming out on top when only Dariush was fighting in the dark, and Oliveira still had the lights on. The irony is that Dariush is the one who always claims he has seen the light. Maybe that's what he has to tell himself.
One other bit of perception distortion I wanted to highlight was Dan Ige against Nate Landwehr. Ige was the shorter fighter but had the same reach as Landwehr. However, Ige stood low, making himself look shorter than he was, and inched backward. Landwehr took big steps forward, thinking he was out of Ige's range while finding his own. But when Landwehr came forward, Ige met him with strikes, not only beating him to the punch but making Landwehr an accomplice in finding his range. By coming forward when Landwehr came forward, Landwehr was deep in Ige's punching range. Landwehr never got his sense of distance.
When you're the smaller fighter, distorting your opponent's perception by making yourself smaller than you are can have your opponent stepping into your range.
Ultimately, if fighting is the art of hitting without being hit, then what that boils down to is seeing while making your opponent blind.
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