Some Observations On Martinez's Tools & Tactics Against Macklin

There are a few things I found interesting when watching Martinez work against Macklin last night. It seems he's made a few slight improvements/adjustments, and there's a pattern in his strategy that I've picked up on.

First off, Martinez has tightened up his guard well. We've seen him adopt a loose but effective guard when he needs it, particularly when in the pocket against fighters like Paul Williams, but in the Barker fight, it was lacking. We all know Martinez's style has inherent risks considering his hands are at his side, but his biggest mistakes were stepping straight back after an exchange with little effective parrying. In this fight, whenever Martinez found himself in close quarters with Macklin, he was able to block and parry punches much more effectively before circling out and leaving "out the side door." (This was probably also easier since Macklin was the aggressor, and Barker at times was making Sergio lead in ways that made him uncomfortable.)

The more interesting observation I made was Sergio's lateral movement. Conventional wisdom says that you want to circle away from a fighter's power hand, and if they are a southpaw, establish lead foot positioning, but there are clearly exceptions in which doing the opposite has strategic benefits. Roach for example often instructs Manny that if he circles left, to step all the way out and make the fighter follow. In other cases, the opponent is a convert. In this case, Martinez was constantly circling towards Macklin's right side, and seemed to largely nullify Macklin's offense for long stretches of time. The only time he really paid for having his foot on the inside was the right hand knockdown as their legs got tangled. Macklin was putting up a great effort by jabbing, moving his head, feinting, but I noticed that if he didn't land the jab on his way in, he wasn't comfortable. Against Sturm, he was able to easily get inside on a largely static fighter, and land a stiff jab between his high guard before hammering him to the body. Macklin isn't a very jab-happy fighter, but against a mobile and long fighter like Martinez, rear-hand leads aren't going to do much before they're already picked up on. After watching Martinez have so much success by moving towards the inside/right side of Macklin and taking away the space for him to land his left jab, it reminded me of a Golpe A Golpe translation I did in which he employed a similar tactic against Dzinziruk, a southpaw:

Martinez: There was one move, one move that was key.

JMM: Tell us.

Martinez: It was my movement to his left, because he based his boxing on the jab. If I moved this way (Martinez's left,) he wouldn't stop working the jab. So I had to move here to the other side.

Announcer Dude: So you moved like a right-handed fighter. The opposite.

Martinez: No, well...my placements are a bit strange, you know.

JMM: Here, I'm just the referee. Let me make myself over here so that you guys have more space.

Martinez: So what I had to do was keep moving this way (Martinez's right), because his left, it didn't come out. The left was thrown very few times, and it's been like that all his career. So I said, let me move to this side, evade the jab, and when I can, work on the inside.

JMM: That's how we saw it on video, that's how you knocked him down two times, how you connected with two such potent straight lefts.

Announcer Dude: A change of angles.

Martinez: Exactly. Change the angle, and I let him work a little-well as I fight, with my guard down, I put out a an invite, and when I come out (slips jab), I now have everything.

Martinez's mobility in that fight was great, and little things like these make me respect his Ring IQ even more, considering his unorthodox approach. I'll have to watch the fight again, since I was missing a few parts, running around for things during a party and rushing back to my friend's laptop (yes, I was that guy.) More insight as to the tactics and key punches used in the fight would be great discussion.

Thoughts?

 

And just for fun, here are some cool HBO pictures with shots that involve what I'm talking about:

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It does feel great when you can explain something like that and have it play out in front of them. When you're not familiar with what your watching, it's easy to make simplified assumptions.

And I think that a technical fighter is a term that should be used for anyone that uses effective tactics in the ring. He's unconventional, doesn't practice certain fundamentals, but he's certainly technical in what he does. Punch placement, footwork, distance, form, knowing what counters to use, knowing whether to slip to the inside or outside, etc...these things are what separate a talented fighter from a truly elite one. It's the same reason why I consider the constant underrating of RJJ's technical boxing ability due to his unorthodox use of athleticism to be very dismissive and simplified.

 

I'll have to rematch the fight, but it appeared to me that the foot positioning was only a liability up close, because while Macklin did land a good few shots with his right, it was nothing compared to how we've seen other southpaws eat right hands when in range like candy. Macklin had success being very cagey with his movements and advancement, but I expected him to throw much more, and he seemed to not know where to start a lot of times. I will keep your comments in mind however when I re-watch the fight. Maybe he would have done better going to his right, but I imagine him running the risk of eating jabs and getting crowded with Macklin expecting him to go that way. I generally prefer when fighter's establish lead foot positioning though, but I was just recognizing the fact that it's very likely a conscious decision that he made, and I'm curious as to the reasons behind it, so I tried to draw a parallel.