UFC on Fox Judo Chop: The Development of TJ Dillashaw

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SALESMANSHIP

Some elements of Dillashaw’s style seem only now to be coalescing into a cohesive whole. One tactic in particular stood out–a flashy little maneuver that until now had seemed more showpiece than ordnance.

1. Dillashaw backs up, as he is wont to do, in a hands-down swagger, inviting Barao to follow.

2. He lands in an orthodox stance as Barao steps into range.

3. Suddenly Dillashaw takes a switch step, throwing his left leg back as if to kick. Barao lifts his right leg to counter the kick with a teep.

4. Instead of kicking, Dillashaw turns his switch-step into a stance switch, and launches a right hook from southpaw.

5. He side-steps Barao’s kick while connecting with the hook before exiting on his new angle.

Since entering Ludwig’s tutelage, his fights have been rife with goofy-looking stance switches, hopping footwork, and other deliberately unorthodox movements. Until now his intentions were often unclear; many of those little tricks seemed more flash than substance–more “move” than tactic. Look, for example, at the first round of Dillashaw-Barao I, and you’ll see dozens of disconnected movements in quick succession as Dillashaw threw his entire repertoire at the champion, just to see what stuck.

But the pieces are coming together now. The false kick embedded in Dillashaw’s stance switch above is more than obvious, and that’s the point. Without moving himself out of position, Dillashaw managed to sting Barao with a clean punch, while successfully avoiding the strike that his movement prompted Barao to throw.

More than anything it was Dillashaw’s commitment to feinting that granted him this latest victory, and the improved efficacy of those feints. The art of selling feints is a deceptively difficult one. Against schooled opponents, of which Renan Barao is certainly one, the shallow mimicry of an attack is not enough. A feint must carry the impression of real intent in order to be believed. Let’s draw an inter-sport comparison: soccer players (I’m told it’s the second most popular sport in the world–after MMA) like Lionel Messi sell their feints by committing their weight.

But that’s tricky, too. Whether on the pitch or in the cage, an athlete mustn’t let his commitment to the feint betray its purpose. After all, the idea of a feint is to create an opening which can then be immediately exploited. If by committing yourself convincingly to the feint you throw yourself out of position to follow-up, the opening will close before you manage to capitalize.

As he has continued to develop, Dillashaw’s game has seemed to revolve around this idea. While his footwork is still unnecessarily reckless at times, you will rarely see the champion throw a feint that does not leave him in a perfect position to follow-up.

1. As in the last example, Dillashaw draws Barao forward with a relaxed, almost lackadaisical retreat.

2. As Barao begins to enter range, Dillashaw feints him, dropping into his stance and drawing back his right hand as if to jab.

3. Barao buys it, attempting to parry the punch . . .

4. . . . and following with a counter right.

5. Barao bails on his counter when he realizes that Dillashaw isn’t  in position to be hit, but he has still fallen into Dillashaw’s range in the attempt.

6. Sensing the opening, Dillashaw clips Barao’s chin with a right hook.

7. This causes Barao to draw back.

8. Concerned with Dillashaw’s hands, Barao doesn’t see the champion’s left kick coming until it’s too late.

9. He drops his midsection right onto it as he attempts to duck TJ’s left hand.

Throughout the contest, Dillashaw made masterful use of feints to draw Barao out of position, and then capitalized with precise, intelligent combinations, adjusting each strike for whatever changes in distance or angle the previous one had caused. For Barao, it was a nightmare. With a gameplan predicated on counters, he was all too susceptible to the champ’s tricky tactics. Worse, each time he took the bait he fell prey to whole sequences of counter strikes, shattering his confidence and picking away at his stamina–which meant that he became more and more likely to fall for the feints as the fight wore on.

POINT-COUNTERPOINT

It’s difficult to speak of 2015’s TJ Dillashaw in anything but glowing terms, so marvelous have his recent performances been. Still, it behooves us to moderate ourselves and view Dillashaw’s game as objectively as possible, if only to avoid serious disappointment in the future. Let’s not forget that in the distant past of May, 2014 Renan Barao was considered the third best fighter on the planet, pound-for-pound. Things change fast in MMA.

Dillashaw’s most recent performance wasn’t perfect. Already plenty of fans have lauded his decision to grind Barao against the fence for lengthy portions of the bout, ostensibly because Dillashaw was intelligently choosing to tax Barao’s suspect gas tank. That sounds nice, but it doesn’t explain why the champion spent the third round moving almost as slowly as his opponent, and breathing just as heavily. Dillashaw’s willingness to stand in front of the heavy-handed Barao and absorb four and five punch combinations doesn’t exactly smack of high fight IQ either.

1. Dillashaw plants his feet to throw.

2. With no set-up, Barao is able to slip Dillashaw’s attempted uppercut.

3. He answers with a left hook to the body.

4. The next piece of the combo, a short right upstairs, misses the mark, but Dillashaw hangs around in range anyway . . .

5. . . . and eats a left hook to the base of the jaw.

6. Separating from his wily opponent, Dillashaw circles for a moment . . .

7. . . . and then tries to leap in with almost the exact same punch, once again without setting it up.

8. Barao barely dodges the uppercut, but runs Dillashaw into a counter jab on the way in.

9. Followed by a right hand. Dillashaw partially blocks it . . .

10. But instead of moving around Barao or creating some space, he opts to stand his ground and throw back.

11. Barao misses his first counter . . .

12. . . . but this right hand lands.

13. And Dillashaw hangs around too long to get out of the way of a clubbing left hook, one of Barao’s most dangerous strikes.

Much has been made of Duane Ludwig’s work with TJ Dillashaw, and for good reason. In the (less than) three years that Dillashaw has been training under Ludwig, he’s shown tremendous improvement and growth as a mixed martial artist. Of his six knockout victories, five have come post-Ludwig. And he hasn’t lost anything in the transition: despite a growing repertoire of high-altitude kicking techniques and long striking combinations, Dillashaw remains one of the few fighters in the UFC with a 100% rate of takedown defense.

I was lucky enough to interview Duane Ludwig after TJ Dillashaw’s first, shocking win over Renan Barao back in May of 2014. In describing Dillashaw and his Alpha Male teammates, “Bang” said, “I have committed, world-class athletes that are turning into martial artists. They weren’t martial artists when I got there.”

Now, to Ludwig the distinction between “athlete” and “martial artist” has many facets. He would tell you that respect and tradition are two things lacking from most athletic endeavors that permeate the practice of true martial arts. Whether or not you agree with that, however, there is also the very obvious distinction between the innate talents of Alpha Male’s cadre of submission wrestlers and Ludwig’s brand of diverse technicians. It’s the difference between gut and craft; between hard work and smart work.

As far as I’m concerned, both aspects are immensely important. If some of Ludwig’s early performances lacked grit, for example, none of Urijah Faber’s have. And if many of Faber’s past fights have been marked by strategic aimlessness, Ludwig’s were always marked by his intelligence and precision. Fortunately for TJ Dillashaw, just as he has a foot in both camps, he seems to have both traits.

Yeah, standing in front of Renan Barao is, strategically speaking, not a great idea. But we must also remind ourselves that TJ Dillashaw found himself facing a far more adequately prepared Barao than he did in their first fight. Unlike the shell-shocked man who seemed barely able to understand Dillashaw’s strikes no less counter them, this Barao was prepared to meet every Dillashaw punch with a kick, and every kick with a punch. This Barao was ready for a firefight, and at times succeeded in getting it.

And yet Dillashaw knocked him out even faster than before.

It’s been said a hundred times that Dillashaw and Ludwig are a perfect team, but the truth is far more compelling: they’re perfect foils, each man representing what the other one lacks and keeping their respective foibles in check. The quote that opened this article says it all: Dillashaw, not fearing his own, will happily test his opponent’s limits, and Ludwig will be there to remind him of the dangers when necessary. Ludwig the tactician and Dillashaw the competitor; the martial artist and the athlete. Together they make a hell of a champion.

For more on this matchup, don’t miss this week’s Heavy Hands, the only podcast dedicated to the finer points of face-punching. The new episode comes out Wednesday morning.