I’m not going to break down Barao vs. Dillashaw II. Not because it wasn’t an entertaining fight but because after the first round Barao managed to repeat every single mistake that I highlighted in the breakdown of their first fight. Congratulations TJ Dillashaw.
Instead I want to look at what was in my opinion a very interesting and educational fight: Miesha Tate vs. Jessica Eye.
I’m not a fan of Miesha Tate as a fighter but it’s not her fault. Rather, I’m not a fan for the same reason I’m not a fan of Ronda Rousey; she is over-promoted well past what she actually provides. Promoting her and Rousey as a “rivalry” carries the same side-eye stench that the Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock saga did.
So when Tate opened up as a betting favorite over Jessica Eye I genuinely rolled my eyes.
While Jessica Eye is far from a contender, I was ready to put her no. 3 behind Rousey and Holly Holm in terms of skill level. She had fluid combinations, moved her feet well, and hid switch kicks with her punches. It may not sound like much but that makes her a savant at the rate the women’s bantamweight division is going. Plus she’s from Ohio, so there’s that.
Sure Tate is big and a decent grappler but she often lumbers rather than moves and her boxing, while used to set up takedowns, lacks any sort of threat.
Or so I thought. Jessica Eye went to counter with a jab like she had been for the better part of the first round when Miesha slipped to the inside and absolutely decked her.
Claiming that Tate’s single right hand changed the entire fight wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Now, Tate had a legitimate set up into her clinches and takedowns. Jessica Eye could no longer dismiss Tate’s striking completely; she could be knocked out or lose a grinding decision and had to adapt on the fly repeatedly.
Firing an overhand rear punch over a jab is a great counter, but as a prolific jabber with 14 professional fights under her belt Eye seemed to be disproportionately flustered. So why did Eye, a (relatively) technical striker get completely psyched out by it?
Simple: She’d never seen power like that before.
In terms of what’s “expected”, there’s two clear attributes that either increase or decrease with weight class. Power is disproportionately concentrated towards the heavier fighters while speed is concentrated in the lightest divisions. Conversely, fighters who possess either attribute at the opposite end of the weight spectrum do very well. Lighter fighters can compound the natural speed of their division with rare power while heavyweights who already have natural power can bamboozle opponents with hand speed, footwork and pace.
Cain Velasquez, Fabricio Werdum and Stipe Miocic have taken out larger and more powerful heavyweights by virtue of their pace and movement. On the other end John Lineker and John Dodson starch more technically sound opponents because they are the only flyweights that consistently show true knockout power (Demetrius Johnson’s counter hook against Joseph Benavidez not withstanding).
With all due respect to WMMA fighters, power isn’t something that comes naturally. Fighters like Eye and Rousey have learned to tag opponents coming forward with straight punches (a laudable skill), Cat Zingano relies on attrition from her thai plum and Sara McMann is one of the better *hookers in the division but none really have the type of power that strikes fear. Maybe Holly Holm but she’s busy cautiously building up her win streak for her inevitable march towards Rousey so we can’t count her just yet.
Tate wasn’t supposed to produce power. Yet she did, and it baffled Eye.
Eye has plenty of technical flaws. She doesn’t move her head off the centerline when countering, she backs away with her chin up and she has a habit of dropping her other hand when throwing a counter punch.
But it didn’t matter because no one could make her pay.
Fighters get better through experience and through experience they learn what to expect. When you see fighters luring their opponents into different strikes or takedowns it’s because years of experience has formed patterns on what works when allowing them to essentially function on “auto-pilot”. But when that pattern is broken, a fighter’s muscle memory and composure can go haywire. Look at what happened when Anderson Silva found that he couldn’t lure Chris Weidman into counters or when Johny Hendricks simply checked Georges St. Pierre’s jab. Two of the greatest mixed martial artists on planet Earth looked like chumps when faced with the unexpected.
The moment Tate decked her, Eye had no idea what to do. No experience in her career had prepared her for a fighter who could take her combinations in stride and blast her in response. Her counters were still landing but while they marked up Tate’s face they weren’t able to dissuade the former title challenger from continuing the assault. She couldn’t magically develop head movement and tried to commit more to her counter punches. Conversely Tate began ignoring Eye’s counters and kept firing her right hand confidently over the jab which led to a second knockdown.
Eye’s style relies on the fact that there is a price of admission for closing distance against her. Tate was the first fighter who shrugged, pulled out her wallet, and got her money’s worth.
I’m incredibly proud of Tate. Throwing an overhand punch over an opponent’s jab is an incredible counter and something not enough fighters develop period. If Tate can sharpen her own jab and her ring cutting (too much chasing) and maybe develop a liver punch then even her laziest double leg will become a huge threat because the opponent will have to guess. While this may be going too far, I can see Miesha Tate developing into the Cain Velasquez of MMA; a fighter who uses powerful striking to get people in the clinch or on the canvas where they hold a definitive advantage.
I may even give her a shot against the champion who is technically unimpressive on the feet but gets away with it because of the poor caliber of her opponents. You know, like Eye.
The lesson here is that being unique counts for a lot in MMA. Whether it’s a 125 fireplug that can knock people senseless, a heavyweight that moves like a middleweight OR in this case . . . a Cupcake that hits like a brick.
*hooker means one who throws hooks in a combat sport, not one who shows in thigh high boots and negotiates by the hour
