Briedis, Byrd won’t be able to hurt him, and he’s not predictable like Tua, he’ll actually be able to close the gap, he has more tools by way of setting up punches than Tua and is taller, he can subtly get closer and fire that lead right hand off, step around to create an angle and get more punches off, body and head combinations, he can even bait Byrd to lead off with the jab and counter him over that with his own lead hand. Briedis is one of the most underrated fighters of all time in terms of skill and ring IQ, he’d beat plenty of heavyweights from that era, he’d smoke John Ruiz, beats Michael Moorer, Tim Witherspoon, Tommy Morrison, Ray Mercer, David Tua, knocks out the Roy Jones that moved up, beats old Foreman, these may be controversial opinions, but in his prime, he could adapt to any style, was versatile, could set up any attack, had fast feet, could use angles, great at baiting opponents in, people don’t understand how underrated he is.
Agreed. Another thing about Breidis is he knows how to fight and beat Southpaws. He is a very underated fighter that has very solid amateur background. The guy can fight.
He’s one of best fighters against southpaws I’ve seen, never looked awkward against them, fighters often don’t know what to do with their lead hand or their feet, he seemingly had no issue whatsoever, that lead right he threw against them came out of nowhere, he also didn’t fall into the left counter the way a lot of orthodox fighters do, they forget how to set up punches, make their footwork predictable and come in square on, Briedis didn’t fall for the southpaws traps, also would feint up and down and with the feet and lead hand to be unpredictable to the southpaw left, and to set up punches, would tap high and shoot the right hand to the body, or go low, right the head, another one he’d use was the left feint to the body, come with the wide left hook over the top. His lack of weakness against southpaws will be down to the amateur career, but I assume he must’ve prioritised them in sparring when out of camp or something, because imo, he was better against southpaws than against orthodox fighters, which is the first time I’ve ever thought that about any fighter.
