The Film Room: Marlon Moraes
Two bantamweight top contenders face off Friday when Marlon
Moraes takes on Jimmie
Rivera in Utica, New York, in the main event of
UFC Fight Night 131.
For many years Moraes was one of the best fighters to never step inside the Octagon. Just last summer Moraes signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship and has since made his case as one of the best bantamweights in the world while proving elite fighters outside of the UFC can compete with the best. While he dropped his debut in a close fight with Raphael Assuncao, he has won his last two bouts against Jon Dodson and Aljamain Sterling. A win over the highly-touted Rivera this weekend could propel Moraes into the title picture once again.
Like most Brazilian fighters, Moraes got his start in martial arts at an early age. At seven he began training muay Thai where he found success, winning two national titles before switching to mixed martial arts. At 15 he began training in jiu-jitsu, where he earned a black belt under Ricardo Almeida. He began his MMA career at just 19 years of age as a featherweight, where he had his fair share of struggles. After his first 10 fights, Moraes had a mediocre 5-4-1 record before moving to bantamweight and going on the best run of his career. From 2011 to 2017 Moraes went on a 13-0 run while winning the World Series of Fighting 135-pound title and defending it a company-record five times.
Once he joined the UFC, Moraes was thrown to the wolves and tasked with facing the No. 3 ranked bantamweight Assuncao. After a close fight that many thought Moraes won, he lost a split decision, facing adversity for the first time in six years. Although he was visibly hurt twice against Assuncao, he proved to have incredible recoverability.
Despite being known for his aggressiveness, Moraes often takes on an approach I call “pressure countering.” Generally, counter strikers like Anderson Silva or Connor McGregor will bait their opponents to come forward with seemingly lazy defense or cocky antics. When Silva drops his hands, he’s hoping the opponent believes he has a chance to catch him and as they come forward he will step back and counter. Rinse and repeat. Moraes uses a more advanced strategy of countering, where he will pressure his opponents to the cage with footwork while throwing few strikes. Just as his opponent gets overwhelmed with the pressure and attempts to pressure themselves, Moraes will slip just out of the way and land a counter strike like above. This is a cunning tactic as it seems to his opponents that Moraes is coming in hot and heavy, when in reality he’s backing them down with nothing more than footwork, feints and the occasional strike.
Most of Moraes’ success is due to his precise footwork, constant upper body movement, and a wide variety of feints. Notice here how Moraes pumps out a few jabs to the head and body to read Sterling’s reactions. Each time he throws the jab, Sterling attempts to counter with a lead hook. Then Moraes feints the jab, which Sterling bites on and attempts to counter, opening himself up to the rear uppercut and lead hook.
Later in the fight, Moraes attempted a switch kick as Sterling was looking for the takedown and ends up landing a counter knee to the chin. Although this was most likely by accident, it will go down as one of the best knockouts of 2017. Notice how he slightly turns his knee in as the kick goes up. This is not the correct way to throw a switch kick, which leads me to believe Moraes’ timing and reactions might be better than we thought as he improvises in the midst of action.
For many years Moraes was one of the best fighters to never step inside the Octagon. Just last summer Moraes signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship and has since made his case as one of the best bantamweights in the world while proving elite fighters outside of the UFC can compete with the best. While he dropped his debut in a close fight with Raphael Assuncao, he has won his last two bouts against Jon Dodson and Aljamain Sterling. A win over the highly-touted Rivera this weekend could propel Moraes into the title picture once again.
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Magic Marlon’s Rise to Greatness
Like most Brazilian fighters, Moraes got his start in martial arts at an early age. At seven he began training muay Thai where he found success, winning two national titles before switching to mixed martial arts. At 15 he began training in jiu-jitsu, where he earned a black belt under Ricardo Almeida. He began his MMA career at just 19 years of age as a featherweight, where he had his fair share of struggles. After his first 10 fights, Moraes had a mediocre 5-4-1 record before moving to bantamweight and going on the best run of his career. From 2011 to 2017 Moraes went on a 13-0 run while winning the World Series of Fighting 135-pound title and defending it a company-record five times.
During his time with WSOF, Moraes routinely earned highlight KO
wins like this. With some of the best muay Thai the division has
ever seen, Moraes was able to dominate his opponents on the feet
and rely on his jiu-jitsu background to hold his own when the fight
hit the mat. This resulted in Moraes earning eight finishes in his
13 wins and acquiring the reputation of the best fighters outside
of the UFC.
Once he joined the UFC, Moraes was thrown to the wolves and tasked with facing the No. 3 ranked bantamweight Assuncao. After a close fight that many thought Moraes won, he lost a split decision, facing adversity for the first time in six years. Although he was visibly hurt twice against Assuncao, he proved to have incredible recoverability.
Despite being known for his aggressiveness, Moraes often takes on an approach I call “pressure countering.” Generally, counter strikers like Anderson Silva or Connor McGregor will bait their opponents to come forward with seemingly lazy defense or cocky antics. When Silva drops his hands, he’s hoping the opponent believes he has a chance to catch him and as they come forward he will step back and counter. Rinse and repeat. Moraes uses a more advanced strategy of countering, where he will pressure his opponents to the cage with footwork while throwing few strikes. Just as his opponent gets overwhelmed with the pressure and attempts to pressure themselves, Moraes will slip just out of the way and land a counter strike like above. This is a cunning tactic as it seems to his opponents that Moraes is coming in hot and heavy, when in reality he’s backing them down with nothing more than footwork, feints and the occasional strike.
Most of Moraes’ success is due to his precise footwork, constant upper body movement, and a wide variety of feints. Notice here how Moraes pumps out a few jabs to the head and body to read Sterling’s reactions. Each time he throws the jab, Sterling attempts to counter with a lead hook. Then Moraes feints the jab, which Sterling bites on and attempts to counter, opening himself up to the rear uppercut and lead hook.
Later in the fight, Moraes attempted a switch kick as Sterling was looking for the takedown and ends up landing a counter knee to the chin. Although this was most likely by accident, it will go down as one of the best knockouts of 2017. Notice how he slightly turns his knee in as the kick goes up. This is not the correct way to throw a switch kick, which leads me to believe Moraes’ timing and reactions might be better than we thought as he improvises in the midst of action.
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