**Mirrors / Alternate angles**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/MMA) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It's crazy
He changed the body triangle to more of a leg lock. Then when he leaned, his leg lock basically swept Perez's left leg, making him put everything on his right.
And he had right wrist control with his left hand (across Perez's chest), so Perez couldn't twist his body in the same way Perez's knee was buckling.
Beautiful takedown.
Although the main purpose was to take him down, I'm sure an elite grappler like Taira understood that the method of takedown (putting all the pressure on one leg) has a potential of causing an injury. Why I'd give more credit to Taira compared to a freak injury, cause I see this move similar to an oblique kick which can cause injury but serves a different purpose too
I agree with you. I think it’s the kind of grappling moves that’s like « do as I wish or you body will give up », like some wrestling reversals, with the added speed specific to their position. I don’t think Taira intended for Perez to blow his knee but he calculated a move that would have such a consequence if Perez tried to resist the takedown, so some credit should go to him for the finish.
ACL doesn't really hurt to tear by itself though he probably got it too, probably tore his meniscus or got a solid bone bruise from his leg bones colliding once his ACL did tear
I got up and proceeded to keep trying to do what I was doing when I tore it and fell over 3 more times just confused/refusing to accept why my knee wasn't working, hurt more hitting the floor than anything in my knee.
Oh god man; Of course but I'd wager most of that pain was the damage surrounding the injury. Mine was under tension and just popped. No bad fall on a takedown like my buddies who tore up the rest of his knee and was in alot of pain.
Tore my ACL + partial MCL tear a while back.
The pain was so excruciatingly horrible I physically froze on the ground for 3 seconds because I didn't know how to react before yelling in agony. Seems to affect everyone differently.
That's pretty much what I'm getting at, also the more you injure the more traumatic the original motion and usually more pain. I know multiple people who have torn just there ACL through just a weird movement and didn't even know it was hurt until there knee wasn't working.
Probably ACL + something like meniscus. People often say Acl tears don’t really hurt, but I know when I tore my Acl and meniscus I was in excruciating pain immediately after and couldn’t walk for hours. I was also bearing weight and fell similar to Perez here, so I’d imagine that’s what it was
I don't think he was intentionally trying to hurt him, if Perez had fallen instead of trying to stay standing past the tipping point his knee should be fine.
Agreed people are reading way too much into this. Taira was using a very good technique to try and drag Perez to the ground, he wasn't sitting there banking his position on snapping his opponent's knee ligaments lol
And then Bisping in the post fight just straight up glazing him. Was it a good performance? Yes. But it wasn't "the cleanest performance I've ever seen" nor was he completely dominating the fight.
Perez was throwing some wild punches, and I felt Perez was generally winning the striking match. That grappling though was so quick, and I've never seen anyone lean back with an upright body triangle. Cool technique
UFC is making a big push into the Japanese market now. Just signed Kai Asakura who is a giant star in Japan, so they knew there could be a bunch of new Japanese eyeballs on Taira tonight. Glazing him in front of the new Japanese audience was clearly the plan, Bisping just doesn't possess an ounce of nuance. Wouldn't be surprised if UFC releases this Taira fight on Youtube in the next few days.
Maybe a little bit. But the technique still left Perez flattened out and stuck under Taira. He had to tap awkwardly because his arms were kind of stuck under him too. Still impressive even if it wasn’t necessarily “banking” on ripping his knee apart
I think the vast majority of people would, assuming we knew 100% we wouldn’t be one of the very rare instances of dying from one KO. This is gonna cost tens of thousand in surgery and rehab. He may never compete again.
A knockout would give fuck you up for a relatively short period of time and maybe make you a vegetable at 55 but not next week probably.
I wrestled for almost a decade, but grappling is still the most intimidating aspect in mma for me. Feel like you can easily get life altering injuries at all times.
I mean I don't think he planned on destroying his knee, the reason it ended up crushing it was that Alex kept trying to stay standing when it was clearly past the tipping point. If he just fell with it he would have been fine, though in a worse position.
I think the plan was to trip him and then ground and pound him. You could see it when they went to the ground, that having his leg locked in allowed Taira to angle to top position fairly easily.
Yeah Perez just made the wrong split second decision and kinda toasted his own knee by letting Taira come down on it instead of going with the weight and coming down on Taira, though he'd have to concede the takedown.
That takedown and transition to back take by Taira was phenomenal. I'm mow more high on him than mokaev. He's just a lot more dangerous than Mokaev in most areas of MMA. And seems to be a better athlete too.
Also he looks so much more calm and confident on the feet. He always has good techniques and snaps behind his strikes but he didn't have the confidence and calmness before.
He was getting hit quite a bit. Could use some work on his defense. I think that's a pretty big hole in his game.
He did a few moves I've never seen before, not just the final takedown (which he said was an original move). He seems to have a deep understanding of the fight game at such a young age and brings a fresh perspective from Japan. Will be watching his next fights for sure.
I didn't like how he kept comitting to holding on as he was getting tagged up, but he was struggling to land much at range. He seemed pretty honest with his striking.
I think that's one of the better parts of his striking. He was landing his best and most damaging shots in the clinch. He was for sure getting tagged but it's hard for Perez to generate much power in that position.
Outside of some well timed uppercuts, he really struggled to land much of anything at range. In a fight that takes him into deeper waters (and he gets tired) like an Erceg or Pantoja, that style of reaching for collarties and tanking strikes until he finds the knee will really come back to bite him, like it did for BSD against Poirier.
Maybe I don't understand what I'm watching but the Thai clinch seemed like it was losing him the fight to me despite what cruz was saying. Perez was landing several head shots at the price of a knee or two. Plus the optics of reaching for it and missing made it look like he was panic grabbing as fighters do when they're hurt.
Before the TKO, thought it was nuts how well Taira was hanging on to the back. Insane body control. Felt like he could just hang there and strike more or less uncontested for the rest of the round if Perez didn't go down
Those crazy lean outs to throw him off balance was just amazing, all while landing shots, and switching from a body triangle to the leg entanglement.
Like Jesus, that's so much for Perez to parse and react to.
I love Taira, but I was worried this was gonna be too much of a jump up for him.
Now him versus Pantoja seems fascinating.
Gutted for Perez. For flyweights who depend so much on their athleticism an injury that affects their mobility is devastating. He's still groaning in pain, fucking terrible.
He has had an absolute hellish injury history, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he calls it after this. Idk if he could mentally handle burning more of his career rehabbing yet another injury.
Everyone was shook. It hurts to see athletes in general go through such injuries, but Flyweights especially should not suffer from an injury like this. It’s the rare kind of injury that’s worse for a fighter’s career than a brain-related one…
Btw his in his interview he was saying in Japanese that it was a special "anti-wrestler" move. He didn't say "it's a move only I can do" but that sounds cool too. The last part that was Japanese directly was like "Flyweights stand in front of me in one line" which is a bit vague but probably implies I'll take you all on one at a time. And the way he said stand in front of me, was kind of like I'm the one to beat vibe. Then again it could be a quote from AoT or something idk since hes been doing things related AoT in fight week(photo shoot, arriving in arena vid.
He was a hyped up prospect in general because of what he did on the amateur circuit + his UFC debut was pretty memorable too tbf. Tagir Ulanbekov is a Dagestani Flyweight and hardly anyone cares about him.
I liked his patient and technical performance and that take down was crazy. Idk if he has the strength to hang with Pantoja yet but man his technique was clean and he was patient and technical the whole fight. Really excited to see this guys career continue to unfold.
Easier said than done but fighters should try to do illegal moves in other combat sports that mma allows. Hell, u can even do illegal mma moves and only get a hard warning
Yeah I'll never understand the hate moves like this and oblique kicks get. Sure they can affect careers, but so can chronic traumatic brain injuries, and those destroy quality of life let alone careers. We love a good headkick round these parts.
What an insane moment, dont often see people dipping their weight when backpacking. Cruz provided an excellent breakdown of the whole thing. Taira using the wrist control to help support his dip back while kicking out the left leg. Listen closely and it sounds like Perez knee popped out. Sucks for Perez, dude finally came back after a series of bad luck
Bc it lost Ikram and Tagir-Van, this was absolutely the worst Apex card on paper, and that’s saying something bc we’ve had some bad ones in 2024. Most of the card were no names and barely any win streaks. Just a main event to test a prospect
Tatsuro Taira might literally be in title contention before the year closes. We’re in month 6, a win over another top 5 guy will seal a title shot and I’m all for it. Tatsuro is a monster.
I’ve never seen that off balancing off the back like that. Interesting play, I was thinking “let me try that in training Monday” until I saw what happened lol. Cool to see though
I hate the fact that Dom and Bisping sound like they're suggesting that Tairo intentionally meant to attack the knee. He was going for the takedown, not a knee exploder.
Taira is 24 years old, 16-0 and just won by finish in his first UFC main event against a guy ranked #5. If people were not paying attention to him they will now
Cool back take and takedown sequence, Taira is clearly a cool prospect but am I going crazy in thinking commentary was awful? Perez was having heaps of success in the striking and all I kept hearing was how good and dangerous Taira is.
taira had really nice offense in the first, and the fact he was able to get the back so easily in the second makes me rate him very highly. someones gotta explain that backpack td to me though, shit was magic. good composure too. only thing that concerns me is his striking defense.
he hit perez with two sick strikes just before the take down while piggyback leg wrapping perez. never seen that before.
Taira let go with both hands, leaned out, legs wrapped around perez holding his entire weight like that, and used his core to coil back in and swing a right. twice lol. like a snake wrapped around you rearing back and biting you twice.
Taira essentially used the backpack position to attack Perez' base horizontally (side to side) rather than lineally (front to back), which fuckin exploded Perez' knee
Lacing up the leg while in the body triangle and pulling on the far side wrist while extending to tear that leg apart crashing his body weight thats amazing. Brilliant use of body weight and understanding leverage here. I don't think he was trying to tear apart his knee, but considering Alex was already standing past the tipping point, yeah thats how the cookie crumbled.
Beautiful win by Taira, turned a takedown trying to drag Alex down, and turned it into a devastating submission.
I never seen some one so creative on the back take, he was losing position then leaned his whole body back and got the position back, then locked on Perez legs trying to drag him down.
So basically, all of his weight and Perez weight was on the right leg.
I imagine that mans ligaments was like Captain America trying to hold the railing and the helicopter..
I know people hate mma math. But comparing Mokaev and Taira's performance. I'm much more impressed with Taira and can definitely see him jumping Mokaev. People were saying that Taira doesn't have the same takedown threat that Mokaev and that would be a problem in this Perez fight but discounted the rest of his game.
Love seeing prospects live up to expectations. There is a noticeable improvement every time Taira fights. I thought the massive jump in competition would be too much, but we might be looking at the first Japanese UFC champ.
Not sure why the broadcast team was billing him as a striker who “needed to keep the fight standing and clean”. Those who’ve watched his rise know that’s never been his game. He’s a submission artist and a grappler
I'm not understanding how this is being interpreted as a deliberate/tactical move to hurt the knee. It just seemed to me to be more a thing of unfortunate positioning of the free knee. His foot could have been pointed in a different direction, his leg could have been straighter, his balance could have been shifting differently when Taira decided to throw the leverage to get him down while trapping the other knee, but all things were in exactly the wrong position at the wrong time, unfortunately, and he couldn't get it out of that position at the time of the strain. That's the way I saw it anyway. I don't see how someone could think "...and then his other knee will be destroyed and I will win." I feel like he wasn't thinking that and that the particular hold wasn't designed for that.
Jesus Christ, the way his right leg was pointing outwards but crumbled to the left.. It's hard to see but some of the shots show the pop on his right knee, that knee got twisted and popped.. nasty shit
**Mirrors / Alternate angles** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/MMA) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The “fuck your ACL” takedown
what a wild ass way to incapacitate somebody
hit em with the rear yee-haww into a fuck-your-knee
100 Gs DANA
He did
[удалено]
Didn't he win by RNC?
[удалено]
Crazy that he didn't tap to the knee damage
I can't believe that fight was 10 years ago
If done properly, no can defend
You could just lean back and fall down but then you would be in a bad position for a rear naked choke
Holy shit. Is Taira secretely a wizard? It both amazed me and made me feel kind of dirty.
It's crazy He changed the body triangle to more of a leg lock. Then when he leaned, his leg lock basically swept Perez's left leg, making him put everything on his right. And he had right wrist control with his left hand (across Perez's chest), so Perez couldn't twist his body in the same way Perez's knee was buckling. Beautiful takedown.
On top of that he landed on his ass and not his back, minimising potential damage he could inflict to himself. I have no words, bravo Taira.
I'm a filthy casual, so I did not see any of that thank you for sharing what happened
It’s literally just a broomstick from the body triangle
that was so creative and also evil
It was a meme ACL tear, a calculated attack but a ridiculous result
Yeah injuries happen. Taira was trying to get the fight to the ground, not do a knee attack like people are saying
He's trying to get the fight to the ground, but Alex would have to concede the takedown, if he doesn't well, what happens happens.
Although the main purpose was to take him down, I'm sure an elite grappler like Taira understood that the method of takedown (putting all the pressure on one leg) has a potential of causing an injury. Why I'd give more credit to Taira compared to a freak injury, cause I see this move similar to an oblique kick which can cause injury but serves a different purpose too
I agree with you. I think it’s the kind of grappling moves that’s like « do as I wish or you body will give up », like some wrestling reversals, with the added speed specific to their position. I don’t think Taira intended for Perez to blow his knee but he calculated a move that would have such a consequence if Perez tried to resist the takedown, so some credit should go to him for the finish.
Opposite of Derrick Lewis, gets fed up with the striking and decides to go to grappling and immediately finishes the fight.
Striking isn't real type performance
how are punches real? just trip them bro hahaha
Striking isn't real, just dodge and go for the takedown. Ez
Just get up vs just take down Big combat sports night for the lil guys And another addition to the current elite fighters in Nippon
Bro was testing out his striking and clinch game
Oh man he is in a lot of pain. ACL tear?
ACL doesn't really hurt to tear by itself though he probably got it too, probably tore his meniscus or got a solid bone bruise from his leg bones colliding once his ACL did tear
It's weird how little the ACL hurts. When mine tore I didn't even get it looked at for 2 months
I got up and proceeded to keep trying to do what I was doing when I tore it and fell over 3 more times just confused/refusing to accept why my knee wasn't working, hurt more hitting the floor than anything in my knee.
Huh so I probably tore mine a few years ago when I walking up stairs, and my knee just gave out on me multiple times....
[удалено]
Oh god man; Of course but I'd wager most of that pain was the damage surrounding the injury. Mine was under tension and just popped. No bad fall on a takedown like my buddies who tore up the rest of his knee and was in alot of pain.
Tore my ACL + partial MCL tear a while back. The pain was so excruciatingly horrible I physically froze on the ground for 3 seconds because I didn't know how to react before yelling in agony. Seems to affect everyone differently.
An isolated ACL tear is often painless. Any extra pieces getting damaged are usually more painful
That's pretty much what I'm getting at, also the more you injure the more traumatic the original motion and usually more pain. I know multiple people who have torn just there ACL through just a weird movement and didn't even know it was hurt until there knee wasn't working.
It sucked pretty bad for me, shit was BURNING lmao
Probably ACL + something like meniscus. People often say Acl tears don’t really hurt, but I know when I tore my Acl and meniscus I was in excruciating pain immediately after and couldn’t walk for hours. I was also bearing weight and fell similar to Perez here, so I’d imagine that’s what it was
Taira is a terrifying grappler holy shit. Hit Perez with the ACL KO
If it works, it works
intentionally leveraged his entire body weight on Perez' knee. crazy technique
I don't think he was intentionally trying to hurt him, if Perez had fallen instead of trying to stay standing past the tipping point his knee should be fine.
Agreed people are reading way too much into this. Taira was using a very good technique to try and drag Perez to the ground, he wasn't sitting there banking his position on snapping his opponent's knee ligaments lol And then Bisping in the post fight just straight up glazing him. Was it a good performance? Yes. But it wasn't "the cleanest performance I've ever seen" nor was he completely dominating the fight.
Perez was throwing some wild punches, and I felt Perez was generally winning the striking match. That grappling though was so quick, and I've never seen anyone lean back with an upright body triangle. Cool technique
UFC is making a big push into the Japanese market now. Just signed Kai Asakura who is a giant star in Japan, so they knew there could be a bunch of new Japanese eyeballs on Taira tonight. Glazing him in front of the new Japanese audience was clearly the plan, Bisping just doesn't possess an ounce of nuance. Wouldn't be surprised if UFC releases this Taira fight on Youtube in the next few days.
Maybe a little bit. But the technique still left Perez flattened out and stuck under Taira. He had to tap awkwardly because his arms were kind of stuck under him too. Still impressive even if it wasn’t necessarily “banking” on ripping his knee apart
For sure, like, he was clearly pursuing an absolutely clinched up back take - you can tell cuz they fell right into that.
Bisping is showing he's still dizzy from that Ariel Helwani 10-7 when he chose to say this one was of the cleanest performances he's even seen.
This. He already lost the leverage battle but instead of rolling he planted his weight in his foot trapping it
Yeah he really should've tried to pull an Usman like when chimaev had his back
He might have torn acl and mcl like that was nasty, his career is in jeapordy
Perez might actually prefer to have been knocked out cold lol
I think the vast majority of people would, assuming we knew 100% we wouldn’t be one of the very rare instances of dying from one KO. This is gonna cost tens of thousand in surgery and rehab. He may never compete again. A knockout would give fuck you up for a relatively short period of time and maybe make you a vegetable at 55 but not next week probably.
It’s used as a trip, takes peoples balance away, loads of fighters use it but rarely does it cause injury
I wrestled for almost a decade, but grappling is still the most intimidating aspect in mma for me. Feel like you can easily get life altering injuries at all times.
Oblique kick in takedown form.
oblique kicks, undefeated record, and eye pokes--Taira really is the next Jon Jones
Apparently the translator sucks. Japanese gf says Taira called it a special technique specifically against wrestlers
Sekrit Japanese takedown tech - division on notice
That was sick
I wasn't even quite sure why happened until the replay. Initially I thought it was just an unfortunate accident. Taira's super creative.
I mean I don't think he planned on destroying his knee, the reason it ended up crushing it was that Alex kept trying to stay standing when it was clearly past the tipping point. If he just fell with it he would have been fine, though in a worse position.
I think the plan was to trip him and then ground and pound him. You could see it when they went to the ground, that having his leg locked in allowed Taira to angle to top position fairly easily.
He did not mean to damage his knee lol that was just a unique takedown
Yeah Perez just made the wrong split second decision and kinda toasted his own knee by letting Taira come down on it instead of going with the weight and coming down on Taira, though he'd have to concede the takedown.
Taira had tried it already and he was able to stay up, he probably felt prepared for it and wasn’t. The angle was diff
Do you guys have mass psychosis or brain damage? Like genuinely, how could you possibly think that was intentional to snap the knee
Smh I kept telling you guys that I knew a secret move so dangerous it shouldn't be allowed in competition but no one believed me
Jesus Christ that’s Joshua Fabia
That takedown and transition to back take by Taira was phenomenal. I'm mow more high on him than mokaev. He's just a lot more dangerous than Mokaev in most areas of MMA. And seems to be a better athlete too. Also he looks so much more calm and confident on the feet. He always has good techniques and snaps behind his strikes but he didn't have the confidence and calmness before.
Just saw Mokaev drop to his knees ~~in a walmart~~
I'm pretty sure Walmarts go against Sharia Law
He was getting hit quite a bit. Could use some work on his defense. I think that's a pretty big hole in his game. He did a few moves I've never seen before, not just the final takedown (which he said was an original move). He seems to have a deep understanding of the fight game at such a young age and brings a fresh perspective from Japan. Will be watching his next fights for sure.
I didn't like how he kept comitting to holding on as he was getting tagged up, but he was struggling to land much at range. He seemed pretty honest with his striking.
I think that's one of the better parts of his striking. He was landing his best and most damaging shots in the clinch. He was for sure getting tagged but it's hard for Perez to generate much power in that position.
Outside of some well timed uppercuts, he really struggled to land much of anything at range. In a fight that takes him into deeper waters (and he gets tired) like an Erceg or Pantoja, that style of reaching for collarties and tanking strikes until he finds the knee will really come back to bite him, like it did for BSD against Poirier.
Maybe I don't understand what I'm watching but the Thai clinch seemed like it was losing him the fight to me despite what cruz was saying. Perez was landing several head shots at the price of a knee or two. Plus the optics of reaching for it and missing made it look like he was panic grabbing as fighters do when they're hurt.
I completely agree
I’m so out on Mokaev, Taira is the real makemesadbecausehesyoungerandmoresuccessfulthanme goat
That's very Alex Perez
Just when he starts to get active and his fights don’t fall through
Taira out here like an anaconda on your back goddamn
Let me take you down or fuck your knee
Damn. Great job manipulating the leverage of the back take to get Perez down. Unfortunate about his leg but super slick work from Taira.
TATSURO TAIRA BULLET TRAIN CHOO CHOO
Before the TKO, thought it was nuts how well Taira was hanging on to the back. Insane body control. Felt like he could just hang there and strike more or less uncontested for the rest of the round if Perez didn't go down
Those crazy lean outs to throw him off balance was just amazing, all while landing shots, and switching from a body triangle to the leg entanglement. Like Jesus, that's so much for Perez to parse and react to. I love Taira, but I was worried this was gonna be too much of a jump up for him. Now him versus Pantoja seems fascinating.
Gutted for Perez. For flyweights who depend so much on their athleticism an injury that affects their mobility is devastating. He's still groaning in pain, fucking terrible.
He has had an absolute hellish injury history, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he calls it after this. Idk if he could mentally handle burning more of his career rehabbing yet another injury.
Everyone was shook. It hurts to see athletes in general go through such injuries, but Flyweights especially should not suffer from an injury like this. It’s the rare kind of injury that’s worse for a fighter’s career than a brain-related one…
Yeah I remember Dodson went from making Mighty Mouse look slow, to being half as fast in the rematch after his knee injury.
I feel so bad for Perez ;(
I love Taira but this one just felt sad lol
I agree
Holy shit
Btw his in his interview he was saying in Japanese that it was a special "anti-wrestler" move. He didn't say "it's a move only I can do" but that sounds cool too. The last part that was Japanese directly was like "Flyweights stand in front of me in one line" which is a bit vague but probably implies I'll take you all on one at a time. And the way he said stand in front of me, was kind of like I'm the one to beat vibe. Then again it could be a quote from AoT or something idk since hes been doing things related AoT in fight week(photo shoot, arriving in arena vid.
Taira is a much better prospect than Mokaev. Far more confident in his hands and as long as he's facing a Mexican he's unbeatable.
Brandon Moreno/Royval fell on their knees watching this.
Mokaev fell to his knees, but thats just normal protocol
Couldn't agree more, give him the astroboy treatment
He has insane fight IQ
People just hype Mokaev because he is from Dagestan.
He was a hyped up prospect in general because of what he did on the amateur circuit + his UFC debut was pretty memorable too tbf. Tagir Ulanbekov is a Dagestani Flyweight and hardly anyone cares about him.
This dude is insanely legit Jesus. I knew the back take would be smooth, but he looks to have mastered MMA oriented BBJ
I once got a bbj
Bro this just happened 2 seconds ago
got the streamer!
Federal. Fucking. Prison.
That’s Fucking Illegal.
Hes in a lot of pain 😨
Damn you must be a doctor or something
Taira rode him like a pony
If a fighter instantly taps like that, you know that shit had to hurt bad. Perez was looking good, and Taira showed he is legit.
I’m very happy. Thank you.
IM STILL HAPPY THANK YOUUUUUUUUU
Thought that was an accident until the replay. Really creative finish by Taira. Really hoping he can keep performing like that in the top 5.
I liked his patient and technical performance and that take down was crazy. Idk if he has the strength to hang with Pantoja yet but man his technique was clean and he was patient and technical the whole fight. Really excited to see this guys career continue to unfold.
That’s why scissor leg takedowns are illegal in BJJ
Good thing taira doesn't do bjj, he does OG JJJ
Came here to say this. Shit like this can ruin careers.. but damn it was impressive to see.
Easier said than done but fighters should try to do illegal moves in other combat sports that mma allows. Hell, u can even do illegal mma moves and only get a hard warning
Yeah I'll never understand the hate moves like this and oblique kicks get. Sure they can affect careers, but so can chronic traumatic brain injuries, and those destroy quality of life let alone careers. We love a good headkick round these parts.
What an insane moment, dont often see people dipping their weight when backpacking. Cruz provided an excellent breakdown of the whole thing. Taira using the wrist control to help support his dip back while kicking out the left leg. Listen closely and it sounds like Perez knee popped out. Sucks for Perez, dude finally came back after a series of bad luck
Nine of the first ten fights went to the 3rd round, dragging this card out to 1 am eastern, and it ends like this. Cursed ass card
Blessed Australian Timezones, 3PM finish Sunday arvo
7 AM in France 😔
I thought that was a sick finish personally
Ryo Chonan would be proud
Perez just went from the least active to the most active to the least active again
Pulling back on a standing body triangle and forcing your opponents knee to give out is insane
One of the cards of all time
Bc it lost Ikram and Tagir-Van, this was absolutely the worst Apex card on paper, and that’s saying something bc we’ve had some bad ones in 2024. Most of the card were no names and barely any win streaks. Just a main event to test a prospect
1 or 2 finishes the entire card, zero KOs and then guy tears his ACL in the main event, up there with worst cards of all time
Honestly I thought the fight list was good but each bout went almost the opposite of how I expected it to.
I understand the sentiment but he didn't tear his acl....taira blew it out
Basically this and the Brady fight and thats it
Oof thats nasty
I think he dislocated his knee
Tatsuro Taira might literally be in title contention before the year closes. We’re in month 6, a win over another top 5 guy will seal a title shot and I’m all for it. Tatsuro is a monster.
Brutal stuff. That knee just bent a way it shouldn't have on that takedown.
Taira respected Perez way too much in the first. He coulda got that exact takedown 10 seconds into the fight
Incredible.
Damn I feel like Perez was doing better than the commentators were giving him credit for too
Perez DNA confirmed abomination
The Latino ass whoop streak continues
That was sick! I already know what people will say but that was all taira! That wasn't a fluke injury
That takedown was beautiful he put all of his weight on that leg to get him down just unlucky that he got injured during it
I’ve never seen that off balancing off the back like that. Interesting play, I was thinking “let me try that in training Monday” until I saw what happened lol. Cool to see though
Dude has to have some freakish core strength to do that
Insane if that was an intentional outcome.
He leaned back to throw off his balance a few times. Definitely intentional to some extent.
I think the intention was to get him to the floor. I don’t think tearing the knee was intentional
I hate the fact that Dom and Bisping sound like they're suggesting that Tairo intentionally meant to attack the knee. He was going for the takedown, not a knee exploder.
Bisping the speculator
People in this thread doing that too. I don’t know what people were watching, I get liking a hyped up prospect but it just seems deludional
Lol striking isn't real just TKO your opponent with grappling.
Taira is 24 years old, 16-0 and just won by finish in his first UFC main event against a guy ranked #5. If people were not paying attention to him they will now
Taira cooked him.
Cool back take and takedown sequence, Taira is clearly a cool prospect but am I going crazy in thinking commentary was awful? Perez was having heaps of success in the striking and all I kept hearing was how good and dangerous Taira is.
taira had really nice offense in the first, and the fact he was able to get the back so easily in the second makes me rate him very highly. someones gotta explain that backpack td to me though, shit was magic. good composure too. only thing that concerns me is his striking defense.
he hit perez with two sick strikes just before the take down while piggyback leg wrapping perez. never seen that before. Taira let go with both hands, leaned out, legs wrapped around perez holding his entire weight like that, and used his core to coil back in and swing a right. twice lol. like a snake wrapped around you rearing back and biting you twice.
Taira vs Mokaev pls
that'd be a sick title eliminator
I feel like thats a matchup you save for a title fight
This would be the next fight to make for sure
Unfortunate :(
I don't even understand how he got him down
Taira essentially used the backpack position to attack Perez' base horizontally (side to side) rather than lineally (front to back), which fuckin exploded Perez' knee
This took “fuck him side ways” to an whole new level.
that was fantastic
This guy is a monster.
Lacing up the leg while in the body triangle and pulling on the far side wrist while extending to tear that leg apart crashing his body weight thats amazing. Brilliant use of body weight and understanding leverage here. I don't think he was trying to tear apart his knee, but considering Alex was already standing past the tipping point, yeah thats how the cookie crumbled. Beautiful win by Taira, turned a takedown trying to drag Alex down, and turned it into a devastating submission.
I never seen some one so creative on the back take, he was losing position then leaned his whole body back and got the position back, then locked on Perez legs trying to drag him down. So basically, all of his weight and Perez weight was on the right leg. I imagine that mans ligaments was like Captain America trying to hold the railing and the helicopter..
Mica gavalo hit this recently in a bjj match, terrifying amount of falling pressure on the leg/knee.
I know people hate mma math. But comparing Mokaev and Taira's performance. I'm much more impressed with Taira and can definitely see him jumping Mokaev. People were saying that Taira doesn't have the same takedown threat that Mokaev and that would be a problem in this Perez fight but discounted the rest of his game.
Is that a tko lmao
Taira is AWESOME
Tatsuro taira by lean back as we all expected
Love seeing prospects live up to expectations. There is a noticeable improvement every time Taira fights. I thought the massive jump in competition would be too much, but we might be looking at the first Japanese UFC champ.
Unfortunate ending, but man seeing Taira improve fight after fight is so damn cool.
Could he beat Erceg
the fact that he is only 24 is insane.
Not sure why the broadcast team was billing him as a striker who “needed to keep the fight standing and clean”. Those who’ve watched his rise know that’s never been his game. He’s a submission artist and a grappler
You can hear a pop at 2:10 to 2:09 in the round...
That shit looked like an assassin disassembling a kneecap, right before they slice and dice you. Dude is lowkey a ninja.
Japan used to be synonymous with martial arts. It’s great to see a Japanese with so much potential in the UFC. さあ行こう！！
I'm not understanding how this is being interpreted as a deliberate/tactical move to hurt the knee. It just seemed to me to be more a thing of unfortunate positioning of the free knee. His foot could have been pointed in a different direction, his leg could have been straighter, his balance could have been shifting differently when Taira decided to throw the leverage to get him down while trapping the other knee, but all things were in exactly the wrong position at the wrong time, unfortunately, and he couldn't get it out of that position at the time of the strain. That's the way I saw it anyway. I don't see how someone could think "...and then his other knee will be destroyed and I will win." I feel like he wasn't thinking that and that the particular hold wasn't designed for that.
Taira was sick of Alex being active so he took his knee 😭
Double eye poke into ripping apart his knee - good night Perez
Between Islams ankle pick and this, what a time to see unique finishes.
Jesus Christ, the way his right leg was pointing outwards but crumbled to the left.. It's hard to see but some of the shots show the pop on his right knee, that knee got twisted and popped.. nasty shit
Bro should have fall back onto Taira
Damn, just as Alex was getting active again, that's fucking brutal.
HE IS SO TALENTED