Carbo wrote:
What was amazing about Marquez's performance against Diaz was the way he lost the first three rounds, at least, but Marquez was able to make changes to his tactics mid-fight. It wasn't just a case of coming on stronger, or him maintaining output where Diaz failed, which it is in most cases where a fighter comes back from early adversity. Marquez was able to depart from plan A, see which punches might work where he had failed early, and then through his timing, accuracy and technical excellence, make that work.
And that, my friends, is incredibly rare in the ring.
Marquez is awesome.
But please, please let me be wrong.
hmm. not sure i agree with you, that JMM made that many tactical changes. in fact i'm pretty sure i disagree. from memory his fightplan was basically dictated, to begin with, by what Diaz was doing, more specifically the great amount of pressure he was bringing to bear on JMM
to my mind JMM's response to this was pretty much uniform throughout the fight- try and gain space by stepping back, slipping shots and countering whenever he could. and if he got more space, fight more offensively. as that space was limited early on, by definition IMO his game was more defensive.
the main changes IMO came when Diaz simply had less energy to impose himself on JMM. his head movement diminished somewhat by the middle rounds and greatly by the late rounds. = he started to eat more, and heavier counters. under slightly less pressure, JMM had slightly more time to pick his shots (note, if you place any credence in compubox, that JMM's connect percentage started to rise from the middle rounds), and more confidence to put more oomph into those shots.
anyways this is the bit i strongly disagree with I think:
Marquez was able to depart from plan A, see which punches might work where he had failed early,
on the simple basis that guess what, basically JMM was having success all night with counter right hands. more success later with heavier shots. to an extent he started throwing more uppercuts later on, and more bodyshots but to me that was still directly related to what Diaz was doing and able to do. you don't generally sit there under huge pressure on the ropes and whale away with the kind of uppercuts JMM hit him with late when he was able to push Diaz back a bit. those tactics were strictly related to what Diaz was lettign him do, IMO
the minute Diaz stopped putting 100% pressure on, it gave JMM the chance to work his boxing skills more and instead of strictly counterpunching off the ropes, giving Diaz subtle movement behind the jab and coming in with the hooks uppercuts bodyshots.
but ask yourself, isn't the above (his 'changeup plan' by your logic) a basic JMM fightplan? IE as soon as he had any kind of space, it was his fight. which was exactly why Diaz had to open out at the seemingly suicidal pace he set out at. his other option was being slowly picked apart and outboxed for the UD
in a lot of ways, his 'switching of tactics' was reminiscent of what he did vs Manny, there were occasions when manny like diaz threatened to overwhelm him, and on those occasions he had to bite on the gumshield and either counterpunch or flat-out fight to survive. when manny's energy levels weren't so great, JMM was much more at liberty to fight the tactical boxing genius clinic style he has made his trademark.
but in terms of 'It wasn't just a case of coming on stronger, or him maintaining output where Diaz failed, which it is in most cases where a fighter comes back from early adversity', had JMM been able to implement his late-fight gameplan from the start, he surely would have done..? it surely wasn't by choice that he got forced repeatedly against the ropes, and it was hardly a new departure for him to revert to old and better recognised JMM tactics once he was able to get off the ropes and onto the front foot....?
and it certainly wasn't Diaz' choice to apply less pressure and give JMM more opportunities. at any point much earlier in the fight than actually happened, if actually given the opportunity, I believe JMM would have put on his later-rounds tactical clinic in exactly the same way.
not that any of this takes anything away from JMM's performance, i just think you are turning a shift in energy and momentum, and JMM's magnificent ability to react to it, into some kind of tactical reversal by JMM, which isn't warranted IMO.
like JMM went to his corner somewhere around rds5-6, thinks "damn, this tactic of letting him bully me against the ropes isn't working, perhaps i had better try and back him up a bit, wonder why that never crossed my mind before? funny that. still, it's never too late for an artful tactical adjustment to be made, boy the cognoscenti will like this one"
i think his mindset was more likely, "hang in there and do what I can whilst he is fighting at this pace, then when he inevitably slows down take advantage"
unless for the first couple of rounds his thinking was basically 'fvcking hell i'm in a fight here'
