>> So, let's take a look at this fight
from a technical standpoint.
I know someone that really likes to delve into detail
of a bit of fight footage.
What better way to start than the first fight
between these two, Dan.
>> Yeah, it's-- we've got to take a look at this
before we discuss the next fight coming up.
A lot of people thought Mousasi dominated the first round
and he did positionally, if we take a look at it now,
as you can see he steps in with the inside low kick,
he catches the foot and then elevates that,
sweeping it to his left,
so he's able to step in with his right arm
to really elevate Uriah Hall off the canvas
and get the takedown.
A nice little scramble and he finishes in top position
landing some ground-and-pound.
And from this point onwards it was a progression of position,
he passed a half guard, he passed the mount,
he landed some shots, Uriah Hall did a good job
of defending and making it difficult
for Mousasi to settle in any position.
Now this was quite interesting; as Mousasi is passing here,
Uriah Hall locks a kimura grip,
forcing Mousasi to pass around the head,
and as you see here Mousasi is going to lose his balance
and Hall is going to bump him over into an armbar attempt.
Now Mousasi being the veteran that he is, he stacks him,
puts his weight on him, he passes,
and then the same thing again;
uses good hip pressure to smash his legs to the side,
he gets to mount and then gets to land some ground-and-pound.
And as you would expect from Uriah Hall,
here he's got the option to escape or turn his back.
He gives his back and Mousasi makes the most of that,
gets his hooks sunk in
and as Uriah Hall tries to scramble Mousasi to his back,
you see Mousasi punch his arm through,
watch with the left arm there.
Punches through and really does a good job
of locking that in and credit Uriah Hall for escaping this;
he attacks the top hand, peels that off,
and then you'll see as soon as that hand's out of danger
he'll switch to the choking arm
and that survived the first round.
And really a credit to Uriah Hall.
He didn't take a great deal of damage in the first round
and he came out in the second round
already knowing what Mousasi's game plan was.
So he's backed up against the fence,
Mousasi throws another inside low kick
and Uriah Hall throws the back kick that catches Mousasi
in the face as he level changes,
the follow up knee send Mousasi to the canvas
and then a short burst of ground-and-pound
got the fight finished.
Now as you can see the kick's thrown here
it would be aimed at the mid-section of Mousasi
but it's unfortunate that Mousasi's timing
allowed Uriah Hall to catch him in the face there.
My assumptions is that Mousasi was expecting
something slightly different when he saw
the shoulders turn of Uriah Hall
which we will discuss in a second
but it was partly due to Uriah Hall adapting his game plan
for Mousasi, knowing what to expect,
and it was also some fortuitous timing for the level change.
>> We've heard a lot from Mousasi in the last few months,
probably more than what we've heard from him
over some years and he believes this was a fluke kick
and was therefore victorious for Hall,
but if we look at every single minute of this fight
there's a different story, I think.
>> Well, yes there is, and it shows the adaptability
of Uriah Hall reading the first round.
So, Mousasi does the same thing here
pretty much to the second.
He crowds Uriah Hall up against the fence,
throws the inside low kick about 8 seconds in
and then he steps in and he looks to level change
but obviously Hall throws that teep
and he gets the leg caught.
Now the second round starts and Mousasi does the same thing.
He gets stung with a jab early on, he backs Hall up,
throws the inside low kick
and as he sees Uriah Hall's shoulders turn,
you can guarantee there was a flashback
to the The Ultimate Fighter knockout against Adam Cella,
the hook kick caught him right in the face,
and it was a highlight reel knockout.
We've seen it over and over again.
Dana said that it was the best knockout that we've seen
on The Ultimate Fighter and I would have to agree,
so as he saw Uriah Hall's shoulders turn,
he was expecting the kick to whistle over his head
and he was going to level change and smash him into the fence.
So, as he level changed,
the kick that would normally of hit him in the solar plexus
and the mid-section and stopped the forward progression
actually caught him right in the temple
and knocked him off balance.
>> Mousasi saying it was a fluke Brad, you guys train,
you throw things and anything you throw
inside that octagon, you're doing it for a purpose.
Is there such thing as a fluke inside the octagon?
>> I'd say no, but there are circumstances
that don't always go your way
but when you're throwing a punch or a kick
there is always the intent for it to land
but as you say he didn't know that Mousasi
was going to change his level at that point.
>> Or didn't he?
>> Or did he, exactly.
It's one of those, it is fortunate,
sometimes you create your own fortune within this sport
but sometimes, you would say, "That wouldn't happen twice,"
lightning, you get struck once but you may not get
struck twice but it has happened.
>> Yeah, okay.
Well, Dan, let's move beyond just this first fight.
Mousasi has an incredible body of work
and I'm sure you've picked out some stuff
that he's gonna be applying in this fight against Hall.
>> Yes, yeah, for a young fighter, you always forget
that he's young given the fact that he has so much experience.
>> 31 I think?
>> Dan: Yeah, and almost 50 fights, he's got so much experience,
you see him step in against Vitor Belfort.
he had more experience than Vitor Belfort,
you know, the veteran of the game and this was the fight
that he had really been waiting.
You know, this fight had evaded him twice
and he knew he wanted to get this fight
before he could really crack that top 5.
And it was a dominant performance.
He did exactly what we expected Mousasi to do,
he pressured Vitor Belfort.
He pushed him up against the fence, got the takedown,
and beat him up on the floor.
And here with Mark Munoz, it really showed his ability
to recover from a bad position.
He was caught in a body lock, he was being taken down.
He was able to reverse it and take the mount position
and similar to the end of the Uriah Hall fight,
the first one, he got the mount position, he took the back,
and finished with the rear naked choke,
as he was due to in the first round.
And at UFC 200 against Santos,
this was a really dominant performance again.
A beautiful body lock takedown off the fence here
nullified the reach of Santos,
landed a couple of good shots on the floor
but then a white belt mistake from Santos
getting up the way he did;
ate an uppercut and Mousasi jumped on it,
saw the opportunity and again the opportunistic striker,
the guy that, you know, spars 3 hours a day
because he's got a good team of guys around him
that he trusts, you see these opportunities
that he would spot in sparring,
he sees them in the fights
and he's able to make the most of them when they're there.
>> Yeah, Brad, Mousasi's got such a legacy in the sport.
We were talking early about some of the fights
that he's been involved in, how much do you think
that experience will play a factor in this fight?
>> Well, the thing that blows my mind
is that the amount of experience he's had
at the age he is now.
He's had 50 fights nearly, 40 wins,
and his first fight was back in 2003,
and he's fought the who's who.
So he not only has the wealth of experience
of a veteran fighter but he also, in my eyes,
he's at the perfect age to have a push and take the belt
because he's 31 and in your athletic career,
I always felt early 30s, for me, was my best,
when I felt my prime, you know,
and you start to understand your body a bit more
and how to train and he has all that experience now.
I can really see him now, especially as he's learned
how to talk a bit more as well,
I think he's definitely going to be champion next year.
>> Oh, right, that's interesting.
>> I said the same thing,
I think champion or number one contender
by the end of next year.
And I think the Vitor Belfort fight was a ceiling
that he had to reach he had to get through
especially because the fight was in front of him twice
and it didn't come about.
You know, when he was fighting in another organizations
he would always look to the UFC and say,
"What would it be like if I fought this guy,"
kind of like the Marvel/DC superheroes
fighting superheroes;
"What would it be like if I fought Vitor Belfort?"
"What would it be like if I fought Anderson Silva,"
is the other fighter that he keeps mentioning,
now he's got that win over Vitor and it was impressive.
It went down exactly the way it was supposed to,
now he feels like he can approach the top 5
and really make a claim for that belt.
>> Now let's talk about Hall then.
He is a very unique athlete.
He comes out with some crazy stuff, super unpredictable.
>> Yeah, well Hall is one of those fighters
that has the X-Factor, he has the ability to,
like I said before, adapt in the middle of a fight
to catch people with things they're not expecting
and the athletic ability, the speed, and the reaction time
to catch people unawares.
This is beautiful here as he fought Chris Leben,
made him miss over and over again,
then saw the opportunity to do just a slight step to the side
and the counter right, right on the inside of the jab,
really nice.
Against Thiago Santos again, backed him up against the fence,
kept pressure on him, and kept using those jumping kicks here.
We saw the jumping back kick that he used against Mousasi
as you saw against Santos, it caught him in the mid-section.
It didn't have the same effect but the other kicks
that he was using picked Santos off from a distance.
He was unable to cover the range he needed
to get anything effective working.
And I think personally this is the best punch
he's every thrown against Ron Stallings,
as he slips to the outside of the straight left,
comes back with a right hand counter,
really, really nice technique and what it also does
is as he slips to the side, it loads that right leg.
It puts power in the back leg so he can then fire that power
in a relatively short range punch,
which was the fight ending punch,
I mean the doctor stopped it due to cuts
but all the damage was done from that one punch.
>> Yeah, he really came onto the scene, Nick,
with some momentum, people saying that he could
potentially be the next Anderson Silva if I remember correctly.
>> Yeah, TUF 17, I think, Dana White actually come out
and used that term as well.
Throughout that season we were being fed out of the show
saying, "This guy-- This new guy that's in the TUF house
is a killer. No one wants to roll with him,
certainly no one wants draw him in the competition."
He blasts everyone away to the final, looks sensational,
and then in the final gets beat by Kevin Gastelum
and doesn't really turn up on the night
and, for me, that sums up Uriah Hall.
The guy's a complete enigma on his night
if you give him the space to perform
and let his big shots go, he looks incredible.
He looks like probably the most talented middleweight
in the sport but when he's not on his night,
when he doesn't turn up, he looks very ordinary
and fights run away from him,
and that's the thing with Uriah Hall.
You just don't know which Uriah Hall's
going to turn up on the night.
>> And that's the thing with that X-Factor, as well,
when you're fighting a guy like Uriah Hall,
who's had all the things that Dana White has said about him
and how dangerous he is, there's a certain game plan
that people are kind of railroaded into taking.
Mousasi, I'm sure, will be feeling the same thing.
Do you want to give him that space
so you could potentially get caught by that kick?
Of course you don't. You want to crowd him.
You want to push him up against the fence
and you want to take him down,
which is why this counter striking of Uriah Hall
comes into play because he's often under pressure
in his fights, it's very rare that someone backs up
and gives him the space to work,
so he has to look for these opportunities in the fight.