At UFC Vegas 71 former champion and long-suffering Bantamweight contender Petr Yan faced off against Georgian workhorse Merab Dvalishvili. What many suspected may be a return to form for Yan showed to be his most decisive loss to date, as Merab bullied the divisional boogyman for 25 minutes straight.
Downloading Data
‘Downloading Data’ is the term coined to describe Petr Yan’s high risk, high reward strategy of starting slow in order to make reads. Yan will keep his guard raised and strike at a slower pace in order to make his opponents react and work. After the initial 5 minutes, Yan has often learned enough to begin to build a series of counters and nasty leads.
The flaw in this gambit is that to learn a series of patterns comfortably, Yan needs his opponents to fight at his pace. Yan is hard to put away and so very rarely will opponents open the first round fast, unlikely blow him out of the water early à la Garbrandt. Starting at a frantic pace also poses issues for one’s cardio later in the fight (where Yan tends to be at his strongest). As a result, most fighters concede to an opening round at Yan’s pace, doing just enough to win it but suffering for it as Yan clunks into gear.
Pace And…
