Featherweight Grit: A Battle For The Ages
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It’s no secret that the main event this weekend has many fans both excited and anxious. We have two entertaining scrappers battling in what will surely be a bloodshed. However, with the rumors Yair Rodriguez has alluded to in interviews, this contest has found its importance amplified.
Not only will this settle the obvious question of who is the better fighter, but it also will set up the next contender for the title shot, bypassing Josh Emmett entirely. Both men have found themselves falling short when facing the elite in the division– former champion Max Holloway and current champion Alexander Volkanovski– but with an empathic victory this Saturday, the losses of the past will surely mean little as it sets them up for the chance at gold once again.
His style consists of wilting his opponents with a variety of striking techniques, usually which involve his kicks. A lot of his kicks help him to maintain a distance to which he is comfortable, and by setting up his low kicks with feints and angle-work, he’s able to hide them well enough and make his style a bit harder to counter. His punches aren’t overtly impressive, but they’re quick and hard enough to keep a portion of competition from pressuring forward.
Which is his game plan in most outings. Keep the opponent from closing in, slam away at their legs and body, and look for the opportunity to land the perfect shots, like he did to close out his fight against Andre Fili.
Yair has one concerning problem when heading into this bout, and that would be his grappling.
While Yair was able to defend most of the takedowns of the Korean Zombie, a large part of me sees this as being due to how athletic a fighter he is. When faced against people with good setups, good entries, and good technique, there’s a good chance he’ll find himself on his back against the canvas; and although he has a few select techniques he likes to implement on the ground, against a high-level grappler like Ortega, his chances of successfully pulling off submissions from his back are heavily diminished.
Now enters Ortega.
When he is in his element, he is one of the most dangerous submission artists in the featherweight division and possibly the entire organization. His Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills were even able to give current champion Volkanovski a tough challenge, though he would ultimately be outdone in a brutal showing by the champion.
Though not nearly as a prolific striker as some of the best in the division, the threats he does exhibit on the feet exist. Before fighting Max, he utilized a pressure style with an emphasis on boxing where he would often hide behind his shoulder and look to land his hard shots. He’s also managed to incorporate a series of hand fighting and body work to his gameplan, allowing him to fatigue his opponents in a way while he looks to land his shots.
After the Max fight, however, he seemed to implement a lot more to his style, adding more distance fighting, circling, and feints to his arsenal.
A concern in this fight, however, is that his offensive wrestling still isn’t up to par with some of the greats in the division. He did have some success against Chan Sung and Holloway, but ultimately his entries are very simplistic. Against Jung he managed to set them up using better control of range, but offensively, his wrestling leaves a lot to be desired.
So how does this fight end?
Well, in the end it all boils down to how smart the competitors fight. If it’s a game of range and striking, I see Yair landing well and often so long as he doesn’t overly complicate his kicks or his combos. Ortega has a very competent style to his striking, but against a much harder striker, unless his defense vastly improves, he’ll likely eat hard shots to the body and to the head all night.
I can see Yair mismanaging his kicks and ending up on his back, which will give Ortega ample opportunity to secure guard and work his submission games. However, his best bet is to try to pressure Yair as much as possible and force him against the cage, where Ortega can look to use the cage to try to take Yair to the mat and bring the fight to his safe haven.
What do you think, though? Will Yair be too dangerous on the feet for T-City? Or will Ortega prove a much more complete and dangerous counteraction to El Pantera’s plans for feathweight gold? Let me know!
