I can’t believe I found so many wing chun techniques , concepts and principles being applied here. Round 1 Qi La La floored his opponent with simple straight punches. If you look properly it was done with the Vertical Fist which is something taught in wing chun. He also utilised the centreline theory whereby the shortest distance is a straight line! He also use a low Gan sao to swipe away his opponent’s front kick He uses the front kick and side kick cry frequently Look at how he threw his opponent to the cage, he used The wing chun second form chum kiu to turn his hips and to offset his opponent balance. He also ducked to avoid punches to the head. This can be found in the ending part of third form of wing chun Biu Jew He also used a pak Sao to parry his opponent punch The second time he threw his opponent to the floor, he once again showed the wing chub second form chum kiu in turning the hips to do it. He also used a tan gerk (leg check) to block his opponent’s inside round house kick If you look at his close fighting, he always applies the sticking concept which is taught in wing chun chi sau. This allows you to sense your opponent’s intention and to react quicker than him. It also provides you with a certain degree of control. He regularly used the neck grab which can be found in the wing chun wooden dummy form to control his opponent. The only thing which is something not taught often in wing chun is the leg trip which he did at the start of round 1 At one point, he even did a tan Sao to block an enemy’s punch! The commentator even showed the replay of the Tan Sao in slow motion Round 2 After a successful round 1, the tides turned. Qi La La didn’t recover from an early blitz by his opponent. You could see that he ran out of stamina. He couldn’t keep his hands up and couldn’t defend any basic attacks. Whilst he lost 19-18, I believe he lost due to his stamina. His wing chun was clear and superior in Round 1 but for round 2, his lack of stamina brought him down.
I think that first blow from the second round might've concussed him and that's why he looked gassed out,not because he didn't have the stamina. Or maybe that made him use all of his energy in staying alive and coudn't mount an offense. Still very good breakdown of wing chung techniques so thank you for that.
Muay Thai fighters start slow to feel out their opponents. In the process Muay Thai fighter got caught. After that MT fighters right cross and elbow hit its mark. Qi La La was concussed . You can tell he had that blank stare and energy dumped
Interesting fight. Watching it reminded me a little of an analysis I watched recently of the Buakaw v Dida fight. Dida, like Qi La La, went in with an early blitz and almost took out Buakaw. In Dida's case, that was the strategy - apparently, Muay Thai fighters are trained to fight conservatively and observe in the first round, and Dida's camp was banking on this approach. It almost worked, but Dida wasn't able to fully capitalize on his early success to finish the fight, and Buakaw recovered to dominate the fight. I loved Qi La La's performance in the first half of Round 1 - so many clear 永春 tactics on display and even modified for an MMA environment. However, I feel like he actually gassed out in the second half of Round 1. By the final minute of the first round, even though he was still tagging Xie, Qi La La's punches simply lacked force. The early blitz and knockdown in Round 2 pretty much sealed the fight. I agree that Qi La La was probably somewhat concussed from Xie's beautiful right cross in the opening seconds. Both fighters seemed totally gassed out by the end, tho. I give both fighters all the credit in the world. Having followed Qi La La for about a year, I'm impressed by how much he's stepped up his game. Never seen Xie before, but he brought his A game and fought hard. Good job, and I'm looking forward to Round 3 of the series!
When are you going to post the Xu Xiaodong interview? I believe you mentioned it quite a few months ago yet we are still waiting. By the way, your videos are awesome.
