It’s a certainty that World Series of Fighting did not realize the treasure they had on their hands when they signed Marlon Moraes to fight Miguel Torres in their debut event. In fact Moraes, who then sported an unremarkable record of 8-4-1, was probably intended to be an easy rebound win for Torres after Michael MacDonald ousted him from the UFC.
Nonetheless, Moraes beat Torres. In fact, he mollywhopped him, and began a 5-fight promotional winning streak that, just this weekend, culminated in his winning the inaugural World Series of Fighting bantamweight title against Josh Rettinghouse, who played the role of sacrificial lamb far more convincingly than Moraes himself did back in 2012.
Against Rettinghouse, Moraes demonstrated the kickboxing game that’s made him such a dominant force in the promotion. Very Dutch in his execution, Moraes employs decent boxing and dynamite low kicks in combination to slowly break his opponents down. Sometimes it results in a knockout, as was the case against Tyson Nam and Carson Beebe. Other times, as against Rettinghouse and poor Brandon Hempleman last August, Moraes’ victims are simply battered around the cage for the length of the bout, beginning and ending every round with the sure knowledge that they cannot possibly win, and that they’ll be very sore tomorrow.
Here’s Rettinghouse’s leg after the fight:
Three days after the fight, not too bad lol. pic.twitter.com/5VC3XPwuRM
— Josh Rettinghouse ♓ (@JRettinghouse) April 2, 2014
I’m a big fan of Moraes’ style, and he makes a fitting first entry for my new video breakdown series, entitled Frame-by-Frame Fights. In this installment, I break down the nuances of timing and technique that Moraes uses to counter his opponents with kicks until the point that he can begin stalking them and looking for the kill.
As this is my first ever attempt at video production, comments and criticism are not only welcome, but encouraged.
If you have any problems with the embed above, you can watch the video on Youtube, and if you’d like to stay up-to-date on all of Bloody Elbow’s video happenings (and why wouldn’t you?), then don’t forget to subscribe to MMA Nation.
About the author
