WATCH: Rafael Fiziev and Petr Yan have an intense sparring session in close quarters
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Fiziev and Yan are sparring partners at TMT
Rafael Fiziev’s striking is immaculate to say the least. It is no surprise that he trains with fellow striking aficionado Petr Yan to polish up their respective skills. While the octagon in the Apex might be a few feet smaller than the ones in arenas, it shouldn’t be much of problem for Fiziev apparently.
Both Yan and Fiziev spend the majority of their camp in Thailand, training at the Tiger Muay Thai gym. Here they are joined by fellow great mma strikers like Valentina Shevchenko and Alexander Volkanovski occasionally. A small clipping of Volkanovski and Yan sparring at the gym went viral last year showing us the evolution of the sport itself in full motion.
The latest footage from Fiziev and Yan should indicate nothing less. Though the two are almost 20 lbs apart in weight classes, no punches are pulled when they go at it. What’s more interesting is that they do this is space no more than 15×8 feet driveway
Rafael Fiziev and Petr Yan have an intense sparring session in a closed space
At the start, they can be seen working off the clinch and creating combos while breaking apart. Later this transition into intense combos with a mixture of punches and body kicks used as feints to set up the head kick.
As Fiziev lands a heavy uppercut to the face of Yan, Yan responds with a lighting fast combo of 1-2-1 followed by a head kick that leads them to break for a second. Slightly apologizing, the two engage back with both fighters firing on all cylinders.
The training with Yan seemed to bear fruits when Fiziev finally faced off against RDA at UFC Vegas 58. On the card headlined by the two, the long-awaited fight between them finally had the cage doors closed behind them after multiple cancellations due to injuries and other issues.
During the fight Fiziev seemed to have total control while refusing to be taken down by RDA. The close-quarter training against Yan turned out to be very useful against RDA who likes to work with his clinch to create openings.
As we entered the championship rounds for a moment it seemed that the experience of RDA in 5-round fights may triumph over the raw will of Fiziev, as the veteran was able to triumphantly slam down the 29- year – old in Round 4 and probably bag the round for himself.
However, in the opening minute of round 5 , all those worries were put to rest when Fiziev managed to gain a flash KO over the Brazilian, promoting the referee to step in before Fiziev connected with his ground and pound. Though he called out fellow Rafael, tennis phenom Nadal in his octagon interview, Fiziev called out a more serious opponent in Justin Gaethje during his post-fight press conference.
Also Read: “RDA ROBBED” – Fans debate Rafael Fiziev’s terrific knockout of Rafael Dos Anjos at UFC Vegas 58
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Jerin Mathew
(713 Articles Published)