Brendan Fitzgerald and Alan Jouban preview the UFC 284 co-main event title fight between top featherweight talents Yair …
[Applause] foreign featherweight title is on the line at UFC 284 as the Octagon heads down under back to Perth Western Australia electric Striker Yaya Rodriguez takes on the power puncher that is Josh Emmett UFC analyst and Veteran Alan Joe band here to break it down will Deep dive on the X’s and O’s between these guys with Alexander volkanoski moving up to chase double Champion status in the headliner at UFC 284 sets up a great interim title fight at featherweight yeah it really freed up a terrific matchup with this one two guys that get it done traditionally in a striking department but there’s a contrast in Styles in this one you look at yair Rodriguez he wants to use that Taekwondo black belt to stay at range not take any unnecessary damage chop you away with the kicks and then get a running start where you can jump up and do one of those aerial attacks on the other side Brennan Josh Emmett he’s the guy with power in both hands knockout ability with either hand from the jab from a hook whatever it may be he’s gonna have to close the Range close the distance against Yaya Rodriguez all right will dive deep on the fight Focus Allen hit that button for me and we’re not going to bury the lead unpredictability is the calling card for Yaya Rodriguez power for Josh Emmett we’ll start on the yair Rodriguez side let’s go with it first off unpredictability you said it he’s a guy that we’ve seen he will go jumping switch kicks he will go tornado kicks he will do kicks I don’t even have a name for sometimes it’s hard to call some of his fights because of the moves that he’s doing you haven’t seen it before but it’s always fun stuff and he’s the guy that’s not afraid to take chances especially even in the start of a fight you see right here a very passionate guys you very well know he will start the fight against Jeremy Stevens with the flying sidekick right here I want to get into this detail right here against hooker though he starts his fight against Dan hooker I was on this card I remember watching some of this stuff wondering who’s this guy who’s this guy yair not afraid to take these risks right here watch this yair I bet you this guy’s played soccer before because you could tell he does a lot of moves a lot of Sidekicks a lot of bicycle type kicks that that lend itself attributes itself to a soccer background right here Dan hooker catches this kick with hooker you see right here he’s going to kind of just slide his foot by off balance hooker he’s just creating an opportunity this isn’t a fight finishing technique but it’s a high level technique Brandon he’s a high level technique that’s going to set him up to do something else and in this case it’s a technique that’s going to set up a counter right here with a spinning elbow I’m going to roll it Forward touches the legs spins with the elbow that one glanced off of the the face of him you see the confidence that he has not a lot of people want to turn their back to an opponent he’s the type of guy that will put his back to his opponent for a split second to throw a kick this looks like a rolling thunder type kick but those are traditionally a front flip and you land with the heel and this one this is like like I said the soccer scenario this is a bicycle kick where he’s turning his back to his opponent for a brief amount of time he’s gonna try to come over the top with this shin and land on hooker this one glances off of him but again it shows he has no regards to his own safety in these type of fights and he’s able to do these type of big Maneuvers because he’s able to recover so fast you saw when he hits the ground he’s athletic he’s fast he’s got great balance he can get back up to his feet and not feel like he’s in too much of a danger of losing the momentum of his fight this one Charles Rosa he’s throwing a number of kicks in this fight getting trolls Rosa guessing you’re gonna see right here he’s going to throw a wheel kick at some point right there look at the reaction of Charles Rose he’s laughing he’s like okay this is fun we’re doing these type of things what he’s trying to set up though he’s trying to find the perfect opportunity to go for his jumping switch kick on his jumping switch kicks he loves to jump up in the air use that lead leg against the lead leg of his opponent as like a step he’s gonna put his foot there and push off of it he’s gonna get airborne and when he uses his lead leg he pushes it to let the other hip come forward because he what he needs to do is kick with this leg and then immediately swivel his hips to come around with the other leg and kick high so he uses it as a step I’m Gonna Roll It Forward you’re gonna see he’s gonna jumping switch kick right left glances off of the head once again a lot of these strikes a lot of these big maneuvers it could be hit or miss for some people with him he’s done so many of them he’s got so many reps with him you could tell if he doesn’t knock you out he’s just missing by a fraction right he’s always on target with everything and I speak about On Target he does that same technique I’m gonna let this one roll against Andre feely this one was right on target it hits the bullseye same jumping technique that he lands this one hits Andre feely and puts them out this fight Brandon you you know very well yeah you were at this one this is one of the craziest finishes that we’ve ever seen in any UFC fight because of what happened a little backstory on this one guys in this fight five round fight Korean zombie was actually winning this fight yeah Rodriguez was down in this fight so he had to find a way to come back we know what happened at the end but I want to set this up a little bit earlier in the fight you see he’s gonna go for an up elbow this is something that Anderson Silva had success with in his career a little bit of uh you kind of chamber it forward and then you’re gonna come up in the air with the elbow as you’ll see right here and he just misses it but he took a shot at he took a stab at it didn’t land but he’s taking mental notes Yaya Rodriguez is a smart fighter later on in this matchup he notices one thing zombie at this point is starting to rush forward close the distance for him which allows easier technique because they’re already closing decisions you don’t have to worry about it and this one is going to make an adjustment instead of going up elbow he’s going to go spinning back elbow all he has to do now it’s like a wrestler timing a shot all he has to do now since zombie is closing the distance yair could take this spinning back elbow and try to place it right here making adjustment getting zombie to rush in I’m Gonna Roll It Forward you see this just misses the mark now we get back to the end of the fight that we all spoke we were speaking about to set this up as well this is the last round not a lot of time left in this right before this happened Brandon you were there these guys sat in the middle of octagon they had like a Max Holloway moment where they said they kind of pointed to the middle and they let the crowd get it and what yair did in my mind it was that he was baiting zombie he said bring it in because he knew he had to come back he knew he needed a Hail Mary shot he baited zombie to take a risk in this fight and it paid off for yeah yeah and later on we see yair initiates the the momentum zombie retaliates he comes forward again this is what yahir wants he wants zombie to close the distance for him to create something spectacular to get a finish and in this one I’m gonna let it roll he does this up elbow something we had never seen before and puts his lights out at the end of this we were all still wondering what had happened what had happened was he threw this up elbow right here caught him flush on the chin something that we had never seen before came straight up with it again the earlier in the fight he tried the spinning back elbow it didn’t work he changed it up on this one he baited zombie to come in and it proved to be very effective I’ve tried this before I don’t have the flexibility in my shoulders to do this but this just shows some of the creativity that he has and this was a highlight for the ages in this one certainly was I remember being on the call for that and that is proof positive that with yair Rodriguez it doesn’t matter if there’s one second left it doesn’t matter if it’s the first 10 seconds of a fight to do that at the end of the fifth round is something that we so rarely see and it’s another reason why I love doing this show because I would have never gone back and read the different types of elbows that he threw throughout the 25 minutes I didn’t remember it all we remember is like what happened what happened what happened we were trying to figure out what happened until we saw the replay going back and watching this fight he was setting it up the whole entire fight speaking of fight-ending power no matter where it is in the fight I give you Josh Emmett he has done that several times throughout his career brutal power to set it up as well he’s a much shorter fighter but he’s got almost the same arm length as yair right there so he uses long arms mixed with power to get the job done we’re going to show you he can get the job done he’s known for his overhead hand right but watch the power that he possesses in all of his punches right here he can sit you down with a jab basic jab right there but it just shows if you go into range with him a lot of times he likes to Paul with the jab but if you sit in boxing range with him Brandon he’ll just go and chamber that jab out boom you see the opponent right here walks right into it lays him down you don’t often see that with the 45ers I want to highlight this one here Shane Burgos another tremendous Striker by the way Josh Emmett’s last three opponents Dan ige uh Shane Burgos um Calvin Kate Calvin kater thank you very much all high level Strikers right so it lends itself beautifully going into this matchup against Charlie Rodriguez because he has passed all these tests now he’s traditionally Josh imit an orthodox fighter you see right here you look at his legs they usually say never stand square like this he’s Square it up but because what he’s doing is he’s moving laterally he’s moving left and right not allowing Shane Burgos to get a beat on him what he’s also doing is he’s switching stances he’s kind of secretly hiding that he’s going from Orthodox as you see here into South Paul and I went a little bit too far but as you can see his best punches is overhand right but he’s got power in both hands he’s in Southpaw stance now left hand over the top or this way rather but you’re coming over the top and to be able to switch dances and feel comfortable a lot of people they’ll switch dances and they have one move but Emmett is very comfortable switching stances letting it Fly and showing you he carries the same power in both hands we’ve showed that he’s got the jab we’ve shown that he’s got the left hand but this this is his go-to this is something that we all need to look out for in this matchup with yahir Rodriguez it’s the double jab right hand over the top but with this double jab what he does right here it’s a faint it’s a Paul he’s just kind of touching to give you something to occupy yourself in a range finder to set up this this is what he wants the entire time this is chamber the entire time that he’s moving the jab is just a pull and the other thing I want you to focus on in this one look at how high he’s standing right here this is these guys are almost the same height in this now as this sequence plays itself out something that he does very well he level changes and he gets your opponent guessing two things either a when you’re changing levels you’re either looking for the takedown or I’m changing levels right here and then it’s gonna make your opponent look down which is going to free up the guard for the hand that’s coming over the top because the right hand comes over the top and if your eyes are looking down you’re not going to be thinking about it so let me clear all this and I want you to keep an eye on this level bar right here I’m going to roll it Forward you’ll see he’s going to pull with the Jab just left hand is out it’s not even there doing any damage and he’s already chambering that right hand over the top but you can see now how low he is he’s finishing this strike right here right hand over the top and look at the level change so it gets your opponent thinking because when when you’re when you’re going up against somebody you square it up when they go low you follow them it’s instinctively you following the chest that torso their eyes you’re following it and what it does a lot of times it drops your hands you’re thinking stuff to take down or I’m thinking get their body off for me but it lowers your guard as you can see right here even though Dan ige stayed true and kept his guard High he’s still able to land this powerful punch knock them on his butt double jab overhand right his go-to combo on this sequence right here two three two another one of his go-to’s let me show you a little bit of Josh Emmett being smart right here against Felipe the first punch that he throws is a right hand down the pipe Felipe’s bringing his elbow in closer normally we start here but if it’s a punch down the middle it splits your guard right it’s splitting this guard right here so you need to bring your guard inward Felipe makes that adjustment but what it does is it frees up the punch on the outside so you saw after that punch look at where Felipe’s guard is now it’s in the middle of his forehead right and you see this opening now on the side Josh Emmett recognizes that mid combo and the second punch becomes a hook instead of a straight comes around the guard knocks him down so he’s very good even just a 2-3-2 combo he makes one a straight and the other punch a looping one this is the biggest knockout of his career in my opinion Michael Johnson this guy’s been in the UFC forever a very tough Striker to go against as well in this one he does the same thing we talked about earlier where he’s going to level change right here they’re at the same height but he’s going to level change get lower have Michael Johnson thinking about it and when he does this I want to show you where Michael Johnson’s eyes are and his hands are see where the level changes we spoke about it he’s nice and low right here Johnson’s head still up here and Johnson’s eyes he’s looking down he’s wondering what’s going on and also you look at where’s Johnson’s left hand his left hand is right here trying to stuff a takedown or whatever is going on and all that did was free up that huge overhand right I’m gonna back this up so you can see this and all this beauty Paul and Jab overhand right backed up by the power gets the job done every time I Josh him and that for Josh Emmett also came in the final minute another third round on a three-round fight yair Rodriguez when it comes to his striking of course it’s unpredictable a lot of it has to do with how he can throw kicks oh my goodness his kicks we could we could do a whole segment on just the kicks the whole show the whole show on it because he’s got so much so many kicks in his Arsenal but what he likes to do he chops down his opponents he would chop him down have him thinking about the kicks the entire time watch when he wants to use power he uses power when he wants to use finesse he’ll do that as well Charles Rosa he finds an opportunity to dig into it he lets him feel it takes them off balance that’s one that’s gonna be stinging the next day this is a beauty right here Max Holloway high level guy right here you saw that he already went inside leg kick so he’s gonna change it up instead of going power he’s going to go finesse and trickery so he goes two inside kicks right here and you saw now Max Holloway is recognizing it Max Holloway now is having to address it so he’s bringing his leg inward when somebody kicks you from the outside of the leg we check outward when they kick you from the inside we point our toes to the inside we make it a small adjustment to check inward but look it leaves you off balance so he recognizes that throws two inside kicks against Holloway gets him checking Inward and then look at this little finesse right here as soon as as soon as Holloway makes an adjustment to check inward he goes back outward foot sweeps some get some off balance I love how he he changes things up with these kicks off balances Max Holloway there he was just touching and feeling right inside touching pawing at him off balance and now he’s gonna switch it up go back to speed and power watch him butcher the low leg kicks butcher the calf right here Max Holloway one give me another one two okay get Max Holloway thinking low what’s he gonna do go high with the power lands on the neck right there he’s always making you guess when you think low he goes High when you think it’s a soft touching one then he’ll go power so Dynamic with his kicking attack right here Alex caceres watch this one he’s backing up in this one he’s able to move backwards and while moving backwards still lift his leg his right leg right here effortlessly and knock down his opponent while still moving backwards boom knocks on Alex BJ pin we’re gonna talk about the liver kick one of my favorite kicks right here BJ Penn is a guy that’s been through it all seen them all BJ pin was too flat-footed you cannot be stationary you can I mean he’s literally look at this he’s literally flat-footed standing Square air against a dynamic a dynamic Striker like year Rodriguez you can’t play that game against somebody dangerous like you oh yeah you’re he will make you pay and if you see I hear switch to Southpaw stance you better start covering your liver up with your elbow your guard needs to go from right here to about 10 down and cover that liver up because that’s what he’s looking for you see him in a southpaw stance he’s probably going to be throwing that left kick to the liver side that’s what he does watch this he brutalizes that liver goes back to the well again against BJ Penn he gets confident this is called a tornado kid guys if you got athletic ability you got to be high level Brennan this is probably something you could do if you do yes I’ve seen your workout videos I follow you he’s able to spin I’m gonna do a little DC right there he’s able to spin get airborne watch the athletic ability of yair Rodriguez if he gets confident don’t give him that type of space and again bull and matador low shopping kicks right there let me just show you one thing athleticism we spoke about it he’s gonna go right here on this kick again Jeremy Stevens he’s gonna throw this kick and he’s barely gonna touch the ground after he kicks the calf watch his foot watch his foot he barely touches the ground barely needs to reset and go right into his sidekick that he’s bouncing on one foot foot throwing two kicks dangerous at all times I’m gonna let this run we spoke about the liver kicks if he’s in South Pole you have to be cautious you have to be aware of those body kicks they’re coming he’s cheering that that kick and when it lands man it’s just brutal he’s able to take guys out beautiful fight right there again by yeah yeah Rodriguez kicks from all different directions for yair Rodriguez for Josh Emmett he needs to counter some of these attacks for Yaya Rodriguez when he comes in close how does he do it he needs to counter him Josh imman is great at counter I remember I spoke it earlier in the show he’s got long arms it’s great for a shorter torso body because it covers a lot more of the area if you could stay centered right here then when they go to the Head attack you move up 20 when they go to the liver you go down 20 he needs to live in this area and cover counter cover counter he does this very well Josh shimmett he’s got tremendous power and he’s got really a a a very good guard game for this type of Striker against you right here you see him right here against Felipe we’re gonna get into it right here this is the cover counter you cover one side you counter with the other I’m gonna let this roll as I said he’s got pretty good long arms look at this covering with the left hand and while he’s covering with the left hand he’s going to be countering that right hand this one’s chambered one’s covering one’s chambered right here it allows you to throw the punch he does this all the time right left right counters yours again this one I’m gonna back it up a little bit this is more of a frame we call this if you don’t have the opportunity to cover you can kind of just stick your arms out and frame it and hope to deflect the punch now the punch has to come in a looping angle so you see him right here with this arm he’s going to frame it out and it’s going to kind of take the trajectory of the punch mess it up a bit and he’s going to be able to counter off of it here it comes frames on it counters back with a big right hand I’ll let it roll again he finishes everything up with the hooks all the time this one we’re gonna see a little head movement this is the evasion Jeremy Stevens has a mean uppercut we’ve seen this before right he knocks people out with the supper cut Jeremy Stevens whistle in his uppercut and you see Josh Emmett just gets out of range and when he’s out of range he loves to chamber that right hand right here it’s ready to go Jeremy Stevens missed his uppercut you know he’s coming back with a hard right hand this one sat him down it’s on the button finishes aggressively in this one this one right here Scott Holtzman he’s going to show a little bit of range right here in his style not only just the cover counter he’s gonna get head offline so Holtzman right here these guys are both on us on you have to imagine if they’re on a train track then they’re both going to get hit right now Scott Holtzman is throwing punches down the middle he’s gonna move his head a little bit offline a little bit off the railroad tracks right here and then throw his strike that way he’s not in the line of fire but he can still throw power right here from this right hand that’s Chambers so he’s gonna do that I’m gonna let it roll for you guys gets his head offline right here that little bit of movement you see where his head’s at his head is off to the side but the right hand came down the middle landed right there against Scott Holtzman so he’s got a lot of tricks you don’t always pick up on him that always super flashy oh man that’s a that’s a good moment to freeze this one this one is pertinent for this matchup coming up against yeah Rodriguez you see right here Ricardo Lamas gets caught off of the kick this is something that he needs to use in this matchup because you know yahir Rodriguez is going to be throwing a lot of kicks when you fight a kicker and you know they’re going to be throwing a lot of kicks you have to tell yourself I can’t just eat a kick and react you have to say my hand is going to be chambered and as soon as I start seeing the Flinch of a hip the hips coming for the kick I have to fire the right hand down the pipe if that doesn’t land finish it up with the left hook that’s what he’s doing right here he knows Ricardo’s been throwing kicks already in this fight so he gets that right hand chambered in this matchup and he’s waiting for Ricardo Ricardo what does he do they always say don’t throw a naked kick because there’s no punches in front of it you see right here look at the hips you can tell it looks like he’s about to kick a soccer ball he knows it’s coming look at where John Sherman is he’s already even though his hands are very low he knows he’s throwing a right hand he’s looking to counter this immediately and so as soon as Ricardo’s just throwing this kick Emmett’s all over right hand left hook on the button sits him down knocks him out this is something he’s gonna have to utilize against yair perhaps a bit of a cat and mouse game between these two opposite style strikers for Yaya Rodriguez he’s no stranger to chaining strikes together throwing a lot of combinations kicks and punches yeah what he’s good at is obviously he’ll be showing the Striking and with a lot of kickers like to do is they kick to set up a punch as well and and he does that beautifully it’s something that you have to really watch because if you commit to blocking a kick you need to be cautious of the punch after watch here he’s going to throw a kick against Brian Ortega he’s gonna immediately switch dances go to little mini Superman punch and angle out but as soon as the kick comes as soon as he’s retracted right here right he’s immediately going he’s going to go right into a little mini Superman punch gonna find an angle trying to not allow Brian to have a counter for him he’s in he’s out he’s throwing multiple strikes in the process of it boom boom angled out Brian hit nothing but air great job you see right here Alex caceres same thing hook kick immediately follows the left punch he’s very very good one thing that I’ve picked up on with the Iyer when he throws a right kick he’s normally trying to throw a punch immediately after he’ll go just like that one right kick the left hand or a lot of times he’ll go right kick right hand but there’s always a kick punch element to his game which aim is gonna have to be cautious by because if Emma is blocking the kick committing it leaves an opening down the middle you see right here there’s that patented liver kick if he’s in South Paul since I’ve said it a thousand times liver kick if he’s an orthodox dance or either stance right kick is probably followed by a Right Punch you’re gonna see it right here even off of the front kick which is very untraditional um you see right here he throws that liver kick and I’ll roll it forward he’s going to throw a right kick right here a little front teeth almost there’s an opening as I said before you have to block the kicks but when you block the kicks it lowers your hands look where his hands at once again yair Rodriguez recognizes that he’s going to bring his right hand up and get a free shot right here he finds the free openings if you give him something he’ll take advantage of it right away I’m Gonna Roll It Forward right kick Right Punch follows right after he’s looking for those free shots you can’t allow him to have those here we go against BJ pin throws that right kick land to the face immediately even with the low hands he’s gonna follow the right kick with the Right Punch sits BJ down [Applause] something you have to be cautious of and it’s very it’s very tough to deal with because you’re thinking block and then you’re getting hit in the face so it’s something Josh using those long arms has to be very mindful of not committing to one thing or the other kind of have to play a middle game of blocking and head off for the line and covering his face at the same time so we went over the counters for Josh Abbott chaining Stripes together probably the counter for the counter Familia Rodriguez as we said cat and mouse game as they go back and forth walking combos for Josh Emmett he employed this and we’ll take a look against Calvin kater that was his last fight went the full 25 minutes he got it done on the scorecards against Calvin cater who’s a high-level Striker who uses the jab right the longest strike so this is something that he could use against Yaya Rodriguez who’s the kicker who likes to stay long this is a staple of Josh Emmett these walking combos I’ve really picked up on this in his game he loves as I’ve showed you he’s got power in both hands he’s got the double jab but when he needs to cover the distance when he knows somebody’s trying to stay long or they’re backing up a lot he will use this walking combo and I just want to set this up with this when you throw a punch normally we want to retract it so if I get too heavy I get over my my foot I’m off balance the only way for me to catch myself is to take a step it’s like if I stood here and somebody pushed me I would have to step otherwise I fall on my face walking combos works the same way when you do these walking combos if you’re gonna throw with all your power as Emmett does he’s going to throw an over extend with his right hand so you see how far he’s getting right here he’s over his leg right now with his head his power is all coming forward so he knows he’s doing this so he’s fine but traditionally you wouldn’t be able to retract your punch so what you do is you walk with it your right hand goes instead of falling your right foot follows then you can finish it left hand goes left foot follows so on and so on there’ll be a stutter step in there as well but he does this to cover distance and he does this and he lands strikes very effectively right hand left hand stutter step right hand this is his walking combo this is a staple of his game he did this throughout the fight against cater because cater kept using the jab he didn’t like it he wanted to clear that he wanted to get into Power Range we’ll move forward against cater some more you see right here he’s going to mix it up he’s going to lead with an elbow but then he’s still going to go and do the walking combo you see here elbow walks forward puts them against the fence now take note of that when you walk forward with this three-punch combo we’re probably covering 10 feet inside the Octagon So eventually your opponent is going to be against the fence this is a good uh strategy that he could use against somebody like Ian Rodriguez you see in this one the punches didn’t land but what did he do he had him across the black line so he went and immediately tied him up and got into this wrestling style he didn’t complete this takedown but he’s able to get his opponent against the fence where he could lay on him and this is where Emmy does a lot of his best takedown work is against the fence so don’t be surprised if we see this strategy against Rodriguez where he’s doing his walking combos to land punches or even set up a takedown or attempt to hold him against the fence in that fight well known for his power and the Striking and the boxing but a lot of people will sleep on the fact that he was a high level College wrestler and for Josh Emmett perhaps employing some takedowns would be smart against the striker like Roger I think I think it’s imperative that he throws him even if he doesn’t land his takedowns if he gets in on the hips then it’s going to have you you’re thinking about it and then it’s going to set up his best punch right if I get in on the hips one time I could get in and throw that overhand right that we’ve showed you so many times but let’s talk about these takedowns if he can get a takedown on yair this would be tremendous this is going to only help him his favorite takedowns are right here we talk about this all the time on the broadcast you say this the black line this black line that’s the way when we get here we know we’re in shooting distance because the fence is right here it’s only a couple of feet he loves to do his takedowns from here he doesn’t do a tremendous amount from the Open Floor he will do them in the center but he likes to be here so if he finds you here or if he finds himself here against Rodriguez he’s probably going to shoot in and this is what he’s looking for to get you against the fence get his hands together get all of his weight look at this all of his weight is here against your hips he’s got everything from the ground up pressing into you so he can get his hands together and then from here he’s going to try to get his hand together Elevate you use that power and just dump you get you on your butt not a big slam here but enough to get the takedown I spoke about not using takedowns in the center I’m going to give you an instance right here where he does use it and he does it beautifully I want to show you some of the wrestling credentials that he has Scott Holtzman right here he’s timing Scott Holtzman for the takedown right here he’s going to level change he’s going to wait for Scott to throw a strike and as soon as he sees that strike coming you can see Josh Emmett change levels and get in on the hips on his double leg right here so I’m going to roll it forward you see Scott throw this strike watch the timing right here level change and perfect on a double so right now he’s in on a double both hands against each leg and usually you would just run through on power double right here Scott he has wrestling credentials as well he knows how to defend this so it’s not easy on Emmett to get this takedown so he’s gonna switch right here he’s gonna go single leg right here you see he’s gonna grab his hands together get the single legs Scott recognizing this he’s trying to pull out right here he’s trying to pull his left leg out again Josh Emmett recognizing this he’s gonna go high like single bringing the legs up nice and high right here where he’s got Scott way up here off balance leaning back you can see right here his body language he’s off balance right now he’s not really stable right now High leg single he’s gonna push him forward trying to get him off balance and then this is the finishing detail he’s gonna go single leg sweep you see him setting it up right here Josh image right leg is going to clip out the right leg of Scott Holtzman and he’s gonna complete the takedown right here I’ll roll it beautiful job chain wrestling right there and a beautiful job of Emmett going from primary takedown to secondary takedown all on the reaction the counterability of his opponent whatever he came with whatever Scott Holtzman defended with he used another counter as well so great job call that train wrestling finding the opening getting the Finish he’s got those type of takedowns in the middle and this is where he does the most of his handiwork gets you against the fence using those type of walking combos would be a great way to get his opponent against the fence and if he gets you there he’s looking to push you against it find a scramble opportunity to get your hands together and we spoke about it a while ago Elevate you with that power get a big dump and take you down if he can take your year down Not only would that be scoring points but it’s going to be in his head the entire time and try to set up some openings for those big overhand rights that he likes to throw all right for Yaya Rodriguez he has not used to being on the ground in any way shape or form but he does have the ability should it go there defensive grappling yeah here’s not really known for this for his grappling because he’s such a tremendous Striker but yair actually watching footage on him he’s got tremendous instincts he’s got instincts and he’s gotten so much better over the course of his career he works with Izzy mortine Martinez been with him for a while I’ve seen the course of the improvements throughout fight to fight so I wanted to show this one this is actually a loss that yahir had against Frankie Edgar one of the best to ever do it one of the best chain wrestlers that we’ve had somebody who’s Relentless they get in on the hips we just spoke about Josh image chain wrestling Frankie Edgar does this you see yahir has good instincts right now he’s hipping away he’s fighting with an over under he’s doing all the right things he makes one mistake coming up right here he goes from having this underhook overhook underhook or a wizard sometimes they call it but this is the underhook right here he let’s go with that he let’s go with that and goes for the guillotine if you’re going for the guillotine you’re pretty much saying I’m committing to the submission but how do you finish you probably have to jump guard and end up on your back so you’re giving up on the defense of the wrestling which Izzy did not like and so you see that in this fight we’re going to roll forward he’s doing proper defense right here and at that point you see I’ll back it up so you can see a little more clear he let go of the underhook and went for the guillotine it’s going to be tough to choke on Frankie Edgar Frankie Goes High crotch elevates him dumps him this was yair’s first loss in the UFC Frankie did a great job of taking down the striker and showing a way to beat him from there in his career yair has learned he’s he’s polished up he already had good instincts and he was already working with Izzy he just had to polish certain things he was doing the right thing and then he made a mistake he got rid of that mistake he’s not doing those anymore he knows what to do you see right here he’s gonna go Airborne not get it Stevens has an attempt look at this over under right away pulling him up doing the right thing not trying to go for a choke Korean zombie right here trying to get in deep showing great balance right there and not allowing him to finish that takedown again with Korean zombie I want to show you right here Korean times this takedown beautifully gets in on the hips he’s got his hands almost together he’s that hip level he’s where he needs to be his head is on the outside he’s got his hands almost together yahir should be getting taken down right here yeah here does all the right things I want to show you what he does this is something that anytime you get on his hips he’s looking to do this immediately he’s getting an overhook getting an overhook and he’s trying to bring this hand up he’s trying to bring the grip from around the hips to the back where he’s much stronger he has a better fight and the other thing that he’s trying to do is he’s trying to take Korean Zombie’s head and bring it to the middle of his body not on the outside he’s trying to take this elbow and keep it close to his body and shuck him to the middle of his body where they’re 50 50 in front of each other so I’m Gonna Roll It Forward you see right here he’s lifting the arm right here and he’s pushing you don’t see zombies head anymore he’s using his elbow and his hand to push zombie in front of him where now it’s a 50 50 fight and lastly you saw right there he was working for the underhook because ideally he would love to be an over under over under 50 50 pumbling position so making good choices right here didn’t get taken down right here Brian Ortega same thing kind of angles out you see him bringing the arm high not getting taken down this is the last sequence right here Brian Ortega puts him against the fence right now Rodriguez has two underhooks he’s trying to bring Brian orteger back up Izzy Martinez is in the corner right now he’s watching this he knows it’s too late it’s tuna if you could stuff to take down and bring him up fine but if you find yourself against the fence and you’re still fighting this for too long you’re gonna get taken down you can hear the audio of Izzy saying Wiz or under whizzer under he wants him to let go and go over hook underhook or a wizard when you hear a wizard it means an overhook an overhook brings it up a wizard is kind of putting pressure but it’s a similar similarities you watch this underhook wizard under her quizzer Izzy’s telling them to adjust it you see the adjustment he’s listening to his coach he’s listening he’s thinking he made the right decision but he wasn’t able to get the underhook Brian Ortega still is able to complete this but he does himself a good position with this overhook trapping Brian or take his arm I’m gonna let this play through a little bit Brian to take his steps through gets a nice take down right here but I want you to make note of this one thing we’re talking about take down defense but I want to add this in here real quick yair Rodriguez has tremendous onboard his natural ability his body type flexibility whatever it is he’s a natural at the arm bar and anytime he hits the mat he’s thinking pop the legs back and try to go for the armoire I’ve seen it in all of his fights he doesn’t always finish the onboard but he puts people in very dangerous positions in this fight if you remember correctly Brian Ortega tears his shoulder in this sequence it was the armbar attack right here from yair that tore Brian’s arm and so even if you get them taken down you have to be cautious of his attacks because even though he didn’t get the submission he was able to injure Brian and I know that’s not what his intentions were but if you watch this right here you could see he yeah does a great job he’s trapped the arm he threw his legs over he’s trying to get his legs in front of Brian’s face if he can get his leg in front of Brian’s face that’s how he’s going to complete the arm bar he’s not able to do it Brian shuts that off by putting his forehead onto the ground right here but the major thing that’s happening is Brian’s arm is still stuck right here and this is like a kimur if I was going to bend my arm like this it only goes so far backwards when it stops that’s what a comora submission is Brian’s arm is commode right now he’s in a bad position because of the armbar attack they fell into this position but if yair didn’t have this type of ability to throw up these arm bars so quickly Brian would have never got caught so if I roll a forward you see Brian would take his arm his shoulders in a bad position I think it probably pops somewhere around here I’m not a doctor I don’t know exactly what happened but I would put my money on it that this arm bar caused this tear in his shoulder look at this that’s a bad position and you’ve got to think that his arm is probably twisting out this way somewhere with this being his fist um it tore his arm he’s going for the armor I’m Gonna Roll it you can see as soon as Brian gets his arm free right here he starts cupping his arm trying to support it because at that point he’s already injured so that’s where the injury probably happened but again great takedown defense if he goes to the mat he’s got the opportunity to throw up an arm bar or something freak accident might happen because of it but he’s very good on the feet very good on the ground as well as you said good instincts from yair Rodriguez on the ground should Josh Emmett choose to take it there now we’ll go to keys to Victory because we went through the X’s and O’s on what they do well what are the keys to Victory we start with yair Rodriguez let’s get through it fight long and chop away at the legs look he said I said it a million times he’s got tremendous kicks if he could stay long avoid the takedowns avoid the big overhand power shots of Josh Hemet and kick away it’ll give him better opportunity to win this fight also wrestling defense we just went over it he’s good off of his back but why end up there stay long where the high percentage of your fights have had more success stay long get off of the fence don’t go there if you get to the fence over hook underhook listen to Izzy in your corner don’t go for the guillotine use that Wizard and circle off lastly stay flashy baby some people say stick to the fundamentals now with yahir Rodriguez he’s cut his teeth from this man stay flashy he’s gone for the jumping switch cheeks and I showed you the elbows everything that he does if he chops away at the legs and breaks down him it has Emmett lowering his hands because he’s chopping the legs and he keeps this wrestling defense on the feet then he can go for these flashy type moves try to get a finish in this fight all right now let’s go to Josh Emmett if he were to realize interim UFC featherweight Championship gold what does he need to do opposite of Yaya Rodriguez John Simmons needs to close the distance shair was trying to stay a range Josh needs to get in close close the distance where he can land those powerful shots if it’s the walking combos if it’s the double jab get in close ways it could be more effective also have an answer for the kicks I showed you already in that Ricardo llamas clip if yair is going to be kicking the leg of Josh Hammond he needs to know right away after he takes that first kick chamber their right hand and anything that happens if you even Flinch I’m throwing a right hand down the middle followed by a left hook try to make him pay for those kicks don’t allow him to throw kicks free lastly set up those head shots I love it when Josh Emmett does his patented move of pulling with the jab level changing overhand right switching stances overhand left walking combinations set those up give himself an opportunity to land those devastating shots compelling match up for the interim title in the UFC featherweight division one that has been owned by Alexander volkanovsky since December of 2019 but volkanovsky going for the lightweight title down in Perth Western Australia in the main event sets up perhaps featherweight gold for Yaya Rodriguez or Josh Emmett for UFC analyst Alan joban I am Brendan Fitzgerald hope you enjoyed this breakdown of the featherweight title fight coming up at UFC 284. foreign