UFC 206 Breakdown: The Meteoric Rise of Max Holloway

Max Holloway continued his meteoric rise at UFC 206, turning in an impressive performance over Anthony Pettis to cap off an incredible night of fights.

At one point in time, UFC 206 was criticized as being weak, especially after Daniel Cormier’s injury that scrapped the main event. The card had plenty of top talent and a few interesting prospects throughout even if it lacked a true title fight.

Thankfully, UFC 206 will be remembered not as a disappointment to Torontonians clamoring for a GSP fight, but as one of the best cards of 2016 for the absolute smorgasbord of violence it provided.

Despite all the controversy over pointless interim titles and Pettis missing weight, Holloway was in top form as he dismantled Pettis after a close first round. Holloway’s win over Pettis marks his 10th straight after losing to Conor McGregor back in 2013, with impressive victories over Swanson, Lamas, and Oliveira.

Holloway established the low-line side kicks that McGregor gave him trouble with in their fight early and built his entries off of them for the rest of the fight.

Holloway showed off a variety of linear leg attacks. He would jump straight in with a side kick to the leg, throw oblique kicks off his rear leg, and switch stances to jump in with a side kick from his rear side.

The first round consisted mostly of Holloway trying to circle past Pettis’ lead foot and pivot around him to take a dominant angle, but Pettis kept him at bay with his own side kick.

The front-leg side kick is unique in that it is one of the few strikes that can be effectively thrown when an opponent has pivoted around your lead leg and taken a dominant outside angle. Pettis was able to use it to put enough distance between himself and Holloway and recover his position. Stephen Thompson likes to dart off to an inside angle and throw the side kick. It can also be useful as a recovery from a round kick that gives up a dominant angle.

Later, Holloway was able to adjust and find entries to the outside foot position he wanted. He would pick up his lead leg as if to throw the low-line side kick and plant it down outside Pettis’ lead leg, or pick the rear leg up and step it through into southpaw with his lead leg outside Pettis’, closing the distance rapidly and shortening the path of his straight.

He’d also pick up his lead leg to show the side kick and step forward into punches, or land it to break Pettis’ rhythm and open up with punches.

Holloway hit a pair of gorgeous trips. He’d step in deep outside Pettis’ lead leg while keeping his body on the inside and body check Pettis over his leg. Pettis would expect a straight coming up the middle and cover up, only to go flying when Holloway ran into him.

Pettis had success landing his rear hand as a counter early on, but Holloway started feinting at the end of his reach, drawing counters from Pettis that opened him up and dulling his senses to Max’s entries. Of course, it doesn’t help that Pettis apparently broke his right hand the first time he landed it.

Although Holloway’s footwork on the outside looked spectacular, Pettis was often able to hit him with little setup on the occasions he could track Holloway down or catch him in range. Holloway does have head movement, but most of it is in rote combinations wherein he’s slipping a shot that he’s planning to draw out ahead of time. Fighters who rely primarily on footwork for their defense tend to have trouble when they fight opponents that are able to keep them lined up. Expect Holloway to face similar trouble against Jose Aldo with his lack of effective reactive head movement.

Fighters who rely primarily on footwork for their defense tend to have trouble when they fight opponents that are able to keep them lined up. Expect Holloway to face similar trouble against Jose Aldo with his lack of effective reactive head movement.

The finish comes as Holloway lands a pair of lead hook to body kick combinations. He steps forward with his rear leg, feinting another body kick, and Pettis bends over and braces against it, only to be smacked in the face with a few quick punches. Holloway jumps and swarms him until the referee stops the fight.

Fans have been calling for Holloway’s title shot for a while now, but some unfortunate circumstances in the featherweight division have held that off. With his new interim title, however, it seems certain that a unifying fight with Aldo is the way to go. As for Pettis, it’s time to start giving him lower-ranked opponents.

Pettis is now 1-4 in his last five, but all of his losses have come to elite competition. A matchup with a fringe top-15 fighter that can pose him some minor problems, but not enough to beat him, might be the UFC’s best bet for getting his confidence back up.

While I’m extolling the virtues of low-line side kicks, I would be remiss if I failed to mention Lando Vannata.

Vannata established the low-line side kick and started using it to hide his entries into punch combinations. Once he had Makdessi expecting it, he stepped in with one and instead of retracting his foot, he stepped across Makdessi’s body and spun into a wheel kick. Vannata demonstrated the effectiveness of these kicks in his last fight as well, using a similar setup to land a spinning backfist on Tony Ferguson.

Although UFC 206 was packed with impressive performances, Cub Swanson and Doo Ho Choi stole the show with an incredible barn-burner and fight of the year candidate.

Choi likes to use his jab to bait counters. He alternates between a piston-like straight with his lead hand and a probing, feinting jab to draw his opponents in, his right hand ready to counter on a hair trigger when they respond.

Swanson did an excellent job taking Choi’s jab away by slipping and countering. The kind of counters Choi wants to draw out are jabs and straights that he can slip and run his opponent into a right hand. However, Cub’s ducking, loopy counter hooks come at a tricky angle and take him out of position for Choi’s right hand.

Instead of looking to land the right hand after a jab, Choi would have been better served taking a page out of Max Holloway’s book and doubling or tripling up on the jab when Cub ducked to encourage him to move his head further out of position before throwing.

Here Mickey Ward demonstrates how to exploit over-active head movement. He keeps a non-committal jab in Arturo Gatti’s face as the latter moves his head all over the place, waiting for Gatti’s head to move into a position that opens up the right hand.

Choi was able to land some of his signature inside straight counters inside the looping hooks of Swanson.

Choi took the first round, but the turning point in the fight came when coach Greg Jackson pointed out to Swanson that Choi can’t fight off the backfoot. He has what I like to call “Gustafsson syndrome.” Choi relies on his aggression and ability to take the initiative by moving forward to land his counters. When put on the retreat, he focuses only on getting out of range, stepping back first with his lead foot and taking himself out of his stance. With your feet stuck together, you have no base with which to generate power or take a shot, and your opponent doesn’t have to worry about stepping in on you.

Alexander Gustafsson demonstrating “Gustafsson syndrome.”

Choi demonstrating “Gustafsson syndrome.” Note how Swanson shifts stances and dips below his lead shoulder to avoid the initial counter while Choi is still in his stance. Beautiful stuff.

Choi showed off an impressive clinch game in this fight, landing sharp knees to the body and head whenever they locked up. He hit a footsweep repeatedly throughout the fight, and in the first round, he was able to secure a front headlock off it and go to work with knees.

Doo Ho Choi went straight from fighting the likes of Sam Sicilia and Thiago Tavares to fighting a top-five Featherweight and he gave a damn fine account of himself. Cub is a crafty veteran with a large depth of skill and there is no shame in losing to him. This loss is almost more encouraging for Choi’s development than a quick knockout win would have been, as he now has some clearly defined areas to sharpen up.

Misha Cirkunov and Nikita Krylov put on a good fight that shines a ray of hope onto the once dim looking future of the light heavyweight division

Krylov does most of his work on the outside with sharp kicks from his Kyokushin background and Cirkunov gameplanned accordingly. He looked to pressure Krylov to the cage and jam his kicks.

Whenever Krylov kicked, Cirkunov would raise his leg to check and connect his elbow to his knee, creating a barrier to block it. This limited Krylov’s effectiveness with his front and round kicks to the body.

Krylov adjusted and began putting together combos off his kicks, throwing punches when his foot touched down and landing one-touch kicks.

Krylov is known for his sloppiness on the ground, but his grappling looked greatly improved. He managed to threaten a guillotine to stand up and even took Cirkunov down once.

The most surprising moment in the fight came as they traded deep half guard techniques. Cirkunov managed to elevate Krylov’s right leg with shin on shin from butterfly guard and used that to hip out and get his left arm under Krylov’s leg while he spread his base with the right butterfly hook. He uses the hook with his right leg to pull Krylov’s left up and grab hold of it to hit a shin sweep. A moment later, Krylov goes out the back door from deep half.

The finish came as Cirkunov deflected a kick that passed across Krylov’s body. Krylov began loading up to follow with a punch, but couldn’t recover from the kick in time and ate a big left hand. Cirkunov followed up with the arm-trap guillotine for the finish.

Both fighters looked impressive in every phase of the game. Cirkunov looks like a future star and Krylov remains an interesting prospect.

That wraps up our recap of UFC 206. There were a few great performances we didn’t have time to talk about. Cerrone and Brown lit the place on fire in a fantastic back-and-forth fight ending with a devastating head kick. Kelvin Gastelum sacrificed Tim Kennedy for the appeasement of the UFC brass, and Olivier Aubin-Mercier finally put his striking together in an all-around impressive win over Drew Dober.