At Flyweight. Would Chang be able to handle a hard punching technician like Arbachakov and outhustle him to win a decision? Kind of surprised no one has thought about this match up.
Arbachakov had a rough time when he defended against fighters who used Chang-esque unpredictable bull rush swarming and punching in bunches, mixed with awkward lateral movement. Naam-Hoon Cha and Raul Juarez come to mind, though the latter was imo a past-peak Yuri and more straightline\orthodox with his feet, he still threw clusters of odd-angled punches.Relying on an odd rhythm and volume to offset superior textbook skill. An Arbachakov at his sharpest would be dangerous and have his moments throughout, but i expect he would stay in that relatively average workrate, one-two sharpshooting zone too long and be soundly outworked.You need to stay with Chang for workrate in the exchanges and i can see Yuri being more concerned with defence or re-establishing range with a half-step away and a deterring jab too often...thinking that he'll get the timing down eventually with the straight punches from which he lets his extended combinations flow...but it never really happens and he's left a bit frustrated at being beat to the punch by Chang's sudden rushes. MIght not be too different from how the Chang-Chitalada fight was going before the butt.
Agree with Mante here. This is a fight Yuri could win against a slightly underdone Chang (ala Torres II), but he's a little too methodical, mechanical and even-paced to beat a top flight Chang. Yuri likely lands the cleaner, more effective shots and could potentially edge out a card with a judge that has that myopic focus, but he'd likely lose at least two thirds of the rounds imo if scored with defense, ring generalship and effective aggression given a fair hearing.
I think most of the better Fly's would have a good shot at beating or running very close Chang if he comes in at less than 90-100%, he had that sort of style where fitness and reflexive sharpness is massively important Basically a pure athletic swarmer\unorthodox brawling fighter.He had skills but few that were really truly textbook or built to last without remaining in peak physical condition. That's a big part of why his peak was short.He never got the extra technical tutelage that a young Duran did to sustain longevity while having a less than spartan lifestyle.
Yeah it's a fine line fighting with that sort of approach and there's not much middle ground between excellent and horrible. Quite common for the swarmer types to go that way...
Abrachakov was excellent, he truly was, but Chang was a class above. The Korean Hawk by UD or maybe even late TKO.
