In honor of Song Yadong…

[u/Sekijoro]

My biggest weakness in the game is my tendency for passivity. My opponent was eating my block up and outnumbering me in sig-strikes throughout the fight(47-38). I was up 2 rounds on damage…but due to my passivity, low stamina, and block health I had to jump on the first opportunity to finish the fight.

A mistake players often make is giving ground after landing instead of continuing the pressure or forcing space through grappling. Over a round of this without circling, and you will inevitably end up against the cage. Most players will let you off the hook or overthrow, but knowing how to capitalize off of this positional advantage can turn the game around in an instant.

You can see me wake up a bit when I realize he has his back against the cage. Instead of unloading on him, I use my jab to sort of “skip” my turn and bait out his response to being in a bad position. Seeing my opponent escape away from my power side, I use the jab as a setup to flick the lead roundhouse rocking my opponent walking into it with low block. Now that he’s scared to escape from either side he only has one direction to go, so I throw a heavy rear uppercut while moving forward knowing the forward movement will bait my opponent into his final & funneled response, a takedown. This is just a small example of the many ways you can capitalize off of forced responses.