The Film Room: Marlon Moraes
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Marlon Moraes returns to the Octagon for the most significant fight of his life when he takes on Henry Cejudo for the vacant Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight title in the UFC 238 headliner on Saturday in Chicago. Although he has been on the UFC roster for two years and finished some of the top competitors in the division, Moraes remains largely underrated in many circles. That could soon change.
Moraes’ exploits are under the microscope in this installment of
The Film Room.
Moraes also intelligently invests in chopping down the opponent’s legs early. He does not rely on them as much these days, but in his World Series of Fighting run, he finished two opponents with leg kicks and was always looking to punt his adversaries’ legs out from underneath them. Do not expect to see many leg kicks from Moraes against Cejudo out of fear of being taken down by the Olympian, but it would be nice to see him go back to the low kick more often in the future.
Moraes is known for his leading attacks and perfectly timed kicks, but he arguably does his best work on the counter. Instead of standard retreating and intercepting counters, Moraes uses a more advanced strategy: pressure countering. Notice how he backs opponents to the cage with footwork and filler strikes. Just as his opponent gets overwhelmed with the pressure and attempts to engage, Moraes will slip out of the way and land a counter. This is a cunning tactic, as opponents believe he is coming in hot and heavy when in reality he is backing them down with nothing other than footwork, feints and the occasional strike.
Moraes has also proven to be adept at standard intercepting and retreating counters. In the first fight with Raphael Assuncao, Moraes stayed patient, waited for the World Extreme Cagefighting veteran to come forward, ducked his head and looked for a counter rear hook.
We did not get to see things play out much in the rematch, but Moraes started the fight more aggressively than usual and dropped Assuncao with two consecutive overhand rights before finishing him with a guillotine choke.
Moraes does not go to the ground often, but he has been training jiu-jitsu since he was a teenager and recently became a black belt under former Pancrase champion Ricardo Almeida. He now has six wins via submission after the victory over Assuncao, and it would not be all that surprising to see Moraes hold his own on the ground with Cejudo.
Marlon Moraes returns to the Octagon for the most significant fight of his life when he takes on Henry Cejudo for the vacant Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight title in the UFC 238 headliner on Saturday in Chicago. Although he has been on the UFC roster for two years and finished some of the top competitors in the division, Moraes remains largely underrated in many circles. That could soon change.
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Moraes started training in muay Thai at the tender age of 7 and
eventually moved on to Brazilian jiu-jitsu when he was 15. With 24
years of martial arts experience, Moraes is one of the most
well-rounded fighters in the UFC, and at just 31 years old, he has
plenty of time to make his case as one of the greatest
bantamweights in MMA history. Naturally, he favors Thai-style kicks
on the lead, but he also has his fair share of taekwondo and
classic kickboxing techniques. His favorite strike is the classic
Thai-style switch kick, where he leans far back at the waist while
keeping his lead hand extended to defend and set the range of the
kick. He also occasionally throws a spinning side kick or even a
tornado kick, but at the end of the day his lightning-quick switch
kick is his bread and butter. Moraes does struggle with setups. He
almost always throws his kicks as naked strikes, and though they
still land more often than not, he would have even more success if
he pumped out a jab or came forward with a quick combo topped off
with the kick.
Moraes also intelligently invests in chopping down the opponent’s legs early. He does not rely on them as much these days, but in his World Series of Fighting run, he finished two opponents with leg kicks and was always looking to punt his adversaries’ legs out from underneath them. Do not expect to see many leg kicks from Moraes against Cejudo out of fear of being taken down by the Olympian, but it would be nice to see him go back to the low kick more often in the future.
Moraes is known for his leading attacks and perfectly timed kicks, but he arguably does his best work on the counter. Instead of standard retreating and intercepting counters, Moraes uses a more advanced strategy: pressure countering. Notice how he backs opponents to the cage with footwork and filler strikes. Just as his opponent gets overwhelmed with the pressure and attempts to engage, Moraes will slip out of the way and land a counter. This is a cunning tactic, as opponents believe he is coming in hot and heavy when in reality he is backing them down with nothing other than footwork, feints and the occasional strike.
Moraes has also proven to be adept at standard intercepting and retreating counters. In the first fight with Raphael Assuncao, Moraes stayed patient, waited for the World Extreme Cagefighting veteran to come forward, ducked his head and looked for a counter rear hook.
We did not get to see things play out much in the rematch, but Moraes started the fight more aggressively than usual and dropped Assuncao with two consecutive overhand rights before finishing him with a guillotine choke.
Moraes does not go to the ground often, but he has been training jiu-jitsu since he was a teenager and recently became a black belt under former Pancrase champion Ricardo Almeida. He now has six wins via submission after the victory over Assuncao, and it would not be all that surprising to see Moraes hold his own on the ground with Cejudo.
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