Matt’s taking on Shane Bane for his second cage match on November 22nd in Cage of Truth. Shane fought Patrick Holohan in the last Cage of Truth – match up here:
A few observations:
- He’s very aggressive coming forward, though not that technical. He’s really throwing shots to phase his opponent. Staying calm and throwing straights down the centre could land some nice blows. Of course, keeping your hands up is vital!
- The Dublin crowd tends to be louder and more aggressive than the Galway crowd, which often leads fighters into being more aggressive and reckless themselves. Don’t fall into this trap if it’s not in your gameplan.
- He’s not throwing any leg kicks. A few tasty shots could slow down his rush attacks.
- He’s not doing much on the ground submission or striking wise. If Matt’s taken down he should look to sweep, sub or stand up. His shots didn’t look too dangerous, i.e. knock out.
- Patrick goes for the headlock in round one a lot. I have very, very rarely see this pay off in terms of a submission victory in MMA. If you’re looking to stall and get a restart standing the headlock/guillotine is a good option. Otherwise I would dig for underhooks if your opponent drops his head, or use the guillotine to bring him down into side control.
- Twice Shane got caught by the simple ankle pick sweep (made popular by Jim). Really, you shouldn’t be getting caught with this, but it shows that when he stands up in guard, he puts no pressure on the guy on bottom
- They both look tired towards the end of the second round, not establishing position correctly. Conditioning people!
Matthew’s fought Patrick Holohan in the National Submission Championships in June to take the gold. Even though bought are pretty fatigued at this point in the day it serves as a good omen that Matt was able to tap out Patrick and Patrick was able to beat Shane.