Sodiq Yusuff vs Edson Barboza | Dan Hardy Breakdown, The War Room Ep. 282
Hello everybody and welcome to The War Room this one is for this weekend’s UFC main event and what a fight this is going to be Sodiq Yusuff against Edson Barboza um okay quick tail of the tape then we’ll get into it so Sodiq Yusuff 13 wins and two losses Edson Barboza 23 wins and 11 losses of course a lot more experience now as far as their knockout ratios the Sodiq Yusuff is a power puncher but Edson Barboza has a lot more koos to his credit you’ve got to remember of course that some of those are
from low kicks as well as from spinning head kicks so there’s there’s a lot of variety to add some Barboza’s game which can work for him and against him and we’ll get into that so of 23 wins Edson Barboza has got 14 knockouts and one submission which is an anaconda back in 2009 I think you might have invented the Anaconda so far back so it’s been a while since Edson Barboza has landed a submission Sodiq Yusuff on the other hand he’s got six Knockouts of 13 wins so just under 50% and he’s got one guillotine
but the interesting thing for that is the guillotine was in his last fight so I always go okay well this fighter has got one
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well um I advise you all to get the mix box you’ve got a couple of different flavours in here the hazelnut one is the best the peanut butter one’s a close second but if you’re going to order them make sure you get the uh the the better brownie as well chocolate orange I mean what a combination anyway um so regarding this fight Edson Barboza has got a very very good long range game we know this we’ve seen him the way that he moves the speed that he can kick at his ability to target certain areas
as well, multiple stoppages with low kicks as well as of course, the one that we all remember which is the spinning head kick against Terry Etim, which we see in in pretty much every UFC highlight reel still to this day. so for me Edson Barboza, because he’s had quite a storied career and and I’ve kind of been.. like I was, well I was an active fighter and then an active commentator at the same, you know, from one after the next and he’s been consistent assistant on the UFC roster throughout that time he’s always been someone
that I paid attention to because of his striking skill set and because of his capability but in my head I’ve kind of I was thinking about it today and I’m like okay well for me Edson Barboza has kind of got a bit of a timeline of like the basic things that I remember about his career I remember him coming into the UFC with this ferocious low kick game then I remember him landing that head kick knockout against Terry which of course is you know is a very familiar one because we’ve seen it a lot. Then
I remember Khabib closing him down like he had complete disregard for his striking skill set and being able to be very successful doing it. Then I remember Gaethje doing it and being able to put hands on him and really hurt him. So for me it’s always looked like Edson Barboza has been really good if he’s got the space to work but if he comes up against someone that is able or or brave enough to close distance on such a lethal individual they’re they’re able to do it if after they’ve walked through the fire a little
bit and and what we’ve now seen from Edson Barboza is if you look at his game he’s now evolved so he’s got more of a he’s got more weapons at close range like if you look at what he did in his last fight against Quarantillo though the the knee that he landed was just beautifully timed of course he was able to re Quarantillo because he was he was level changing quite consistently up against the fence DC picked up on it in the commentary it was it was quite a consistent habit that he was that he
was level changing so Barboza was able to catch him with that but I still would say that if he’s put under enough pressure he’s going to struggle and this is where Sodiq Yusuff comes into play because he’s kind of at the other end of his career right? he’s still in the process of discovering the fighter that he is. he’s added a guillotine to his record first submission of his career we we we’ve got to anticipate that he’s going to bring new things to this fight as well but how is that going to play out against
Edson Barboza? now the thing with Sodiq Yusuff is he’s a thunderous puncher I think it was his was it his first or second fight I was was on commentary for and it was it was a it was a strange.. hang on where is it? where is it? it was against Suman Mokhtarian in Australia and the reason why it stuck out in my mind is because it for me it was the it was the first time I felt a fight was stopped because of the volume of the punches and not volume as in the amount the
volume as in the smacking sound like it was.. hang on let me get the let me get the information cuz it was… I’ll give you a little story, just one second. so where were we john Gooden Dan Hardy on comms, there we go Adelaide yeah so so this was like I don’t know like 8:00 in the morning or something like that. Like people were still kind of tasting their breakfast and these fights were going on and Sodiq Yusuff had backed Mokhtarian up against the fence and was just unleashing these horrendous power punches not all of
them getting through but everything that landed sounded like like Thor’s hammer and and it just to to me it kind of s like the referee was standing there going oh my goodness this is like this is a an outrageous onslaught of punches I’m going to have to step in and save the guy um you know Mokhtarian after you know you watch the fight back and he’s leaned up against the fence and he you know he would would like the fight to have continued but sitting octagon-side and hearing the thud on those punches it made me
realize how much force this guy can generate and then when you watch his fights you can tell that he has the confidence that he can put people away because of the way that he moves into range now what I will say is both of these guys can slow down for a couple of different reasons one I think because they’re both very dynamic and plyometric uh fast powerful fighters but second of all I think because they both are very very close to the limit when it comes to weight cutting if Edson Barboza when he was a
lightweight if he was going to go one way or another in weight classes I would have always put money on him going to welterweight like you look at other Fighters that have stepped up to to welterweight and you think to yourself well you know they not they weren’t as muscular as Edson Barboza at lightweight so to think him going down to featherweight must be a push for him especially because what how old is Barboza now he he must be he must be in his later 30s right hang on hang on I need I need to
be able to control this with my mind so it’s quicker yeah 37 right so you know he’s taken some battle damage he’s been stopped a couple of times like you’ve got to think if Yousef is able to to put pressure on him and catch him with something he could potentially hurt him and keep him hurt you know like Giga Chad did just keep on him keep him hurt that pressure that punching power that confident surge that he’ll get if Sodiq Yusuff lands something and hurts him that’s going to be very very difficult for Edson Barboza
to survive what Barboza is very good at though is moving laterally and stinging people as they’re closing into range so if if Sodiq Yusuff can’t stay in that close range where of course he’s always at danger if he can’t stay in that close range then he’s going to have to keep walking through the fire to keep pressure on Edson Barboza which means he’s always going to have to deal with the low kicks the body kicks the head kicks the front kicks and TS and then of course what we’ve seen in his last fight the knees
what else um so we’ve talked about Sodiq Yusuff’s guillotine in his last fight now if if he if he is able to get to Edson Barboza if he is able to hit him and hurt him and wrap his neck up then that might be another way that we see this fight finished as Barboza getting hurt and going down might be scrambling back to his feet and leave his neck open and Sodiq Yusuff with his confidence from his most recent submission win and with his growing confidence of his grappling game he might see the opportunity and
and jump on a submission and and who knows that might be the thing that saves Edson Barboza depending on on whether the uh the you know the rounds running out of time or not like all of these things are possibilities that I’ve kind of played through in my brain what most likely I think is going to happen is that Sodiq Yusuff is going to try and close him down and take take his kicking game away like that’s if if I’m Yousef going into this fight with Barboza I don’t want to be playing kickboxing with him
I want to be inside his kicking range and being ready to to block and counter with heavy hands because that’s that’s what I bring to the table here and at any point Sodiq Yusuff needs to he can then close him down against the fence and grab a hold of him and he can you know see this is where he has to manage his his his energy because Edson Barboza is going to be clever here he’s got good takedown defense so Barboza up against the fence defending takedown he’s going to be much more energy efficient based
on his experience than Sodiq Yusuff will be based on the fact that he’s 15 fights into his career and Edson Barboza is what 34 into his um that’s something to keep in mind because if this fight does start to go long then it’s going to start to move back in Edson Barboza’s favour because I feel like he’ll stay crisper with his striking because he’s a more seasoned veteran he’s also got a kickboxing record of 25 and three with 22 knockouts which is a lot of lot of additional experience that he brings in on top of
his MMA career um a few things so hang on where where’s the stats I’ve got stats written down somewhere have I got the same ones yeah okay so so average fight times kind of similar of of course Edson Barboza has had a had a greater volume of fights so you know his experience does does factor in a great deal in this fight slightly lower strikes landed per minute for Edson Barboza but slightly uh is that right hang on a minute let me get my stats right no hang on let me go straight off the website
so strikes landed per minute 5.29 for Sodiq Yusuff so slightly ahead of Edson Barboza and slightly better striking accuracy you can see the defense is pretty much uh pretty much the same but then again we’ve always got to factor in the fact that Edson Barboza has fought at a very high level against some really really tough fighters and Sodiq Yusuff has fought good fighters as well of course but the level is is different for sure um what else what else what else so take down takedown average um slightly in favour of Edson Barboza 12% takedown
accuracy for Sodiq Yusuff I don’t expect him to be looking for takedowns I expect him to be holding him against the fence and hustling him and wrestling him but I think that the the opportunity to attack a neck will most likely be um if Barboza is hurt or if he’s trying to buy time or level change or something yeah Barboza is taking down offense he’s good 75% we know he can scramble we we do also know that he might run out of run out of steam if he is forced to scramble so potentially that could
be something that Sodiq Yusuff brings to the table here um Yusuff does get hurt though this is the one thing that that if I’m watching this fight I’m thinking okay well you know I saw him get hurt against Arnold Allen I saw him get hurt um who was his last fight um not Shainis no it was Caceres caught him and hurt him was it Fili caught him and hurt him in the first round as well like because he’s so eager to close distance because he’s so single-minded on what he’s capable of like as long as
I land this punch the fight’s going to be won sometimes he he can disregard what’s coming back and that’s something that he can’t do against Edson Barboza because Barboza is not going to be putting himself in positions where he doesn’t have options to fire back this is the thing with Edson Barboza his experience and his striking ability he’s going to be moving at Angles where he’s going to be prepared to fire something back as Yousef follows him so if he’s if Yousef is is has got like a hard-headed style of cutting the Octagon down then
he could potentially be walking onto stuff and we have seen him hurt and we have seen him dropped and we can’t underestimate Edson Barboza’s striking he is just he is an elite level Striker all around he has got some battle damage he is older in his career he is cutting a lot of weight to get to this weight class there are certain things that do work against him but experiences is very valuable and Sodiq Yusuff if he’s forced to work hard if he’s forced to work for clinch positions he’s work you know kicked in the
body KN in the body they’re all things that are going to allow Edson Barboza to start to work his way into this fight if he is losing the first couple of rounds um it’s going to be a going to be a really fun fun back and forth this one is uh I’m a big fan of both of these guys but I just I feel like they’re at different stages of their career and and Edson Barboza is kind of you know at some point we’re going to we’re going to see him take his gloves off and
leave him in the centre of the octagon and I felt like he’s been close a couple of times um we’ll see how this fight goes he’s uh he’s very talented but I do feel like he’s he’s certainly on the downturn of his career and Sodiq Yusuff as I said when I was octagon-side I I can like I can literally feel the the the the power of the punches still like it was they were just thud go and watch the fight back it was uh it was a hell of a hell of a way to introduce
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I’ll see you next time
