Alexander Volkanovski’s Smooth Sidestepping System

Before I hit on the simpler terms of mechanics and tactics, I used to write about the intangibles. These were all the parts of striking that were not the strikes themselves. Teaching striking is hard, and learning striking is difficult too: repeating mechanics and fine tuning them is the way that a coach can get to work changing his fighter’s striking without disappearing down the rabbit hole of “sometimes” and “depends” that comes with the intangibles.

The beauty of Alexander Volkanovski’s performance against Diego Lopes was that he took basic striking techniques and he guided Lopes onto them, all while avoiding Lopes’ best strikes. Any dunce can throw a jab, or an inside low kick, or an overhand with a year or two or training, and subsequent training time is only going to shave milliseconds off or add a bit of power. The “guiding Lopes onto them” part was the idea that had me excited to get back in the gym and experimenting.

The Volkanovski Sidestepping System

Volkanovski has always used lateral movement extensively in his fights. Large portions of the Max Holloway bout were spent alternately reaching out to check Holloway’s hands, and then stepping off to one side or the other. There is a lot of depth to Volkanovski’s game—so much so that we did not cover lateral movement at all in Alexander Volkanovski – Advanced Striking 2.0—but in this fight with Lopes, all of Volkanovski’s work was done spiralling around Lopes in one direction.  

Figure 1 shows a classic Volkanovski look that was scattered throughout every minute of this fight. Volkanovski is head-on to Lopes (a) , he squares his shoulders and feigns a right hand (b), then sidesteps to his right (c), (d). Lopes is forced to turn to face Volkanovski and in the process either pivots—limiting his ability to punch—or steps his left foot out, presenting himself as more of a target.

Fig. 1

The sidestep to the right took Volkanovski away from Diego Lopes’ counter right hand, which was probably a major consideration in his gameplan, but he could not have foreseen just how clueless Lopes would become without this one punch.

Figure 2 shows a scene that played out a dozen times in the fight as Volkanovski—always circling to his right—would fake an engagement, Lopes would return with his right hand, and end up throwing it across himself, falling forward, and coming nowhere close.

Fig. 2

Volkanovski’s standard square-up-and-sidestep plays into two of his other favorite techniques. The constant squaring up without throwing a right hand opens up the opportunity to simply throw that right hand for real, and you saw that many times Volkanovski began an exchange this way.

The other technique it plays into is the step up inside low kick. You can step out to your right with your right foot and drag that inside low kick through, or throw the inside low kick normally, amid the circling, because the opponent is conditioned to the sight of your right foot moving first when you are sidestepping.

Fig. 3

Volkanovski employed two other types of sidestep in his constant gliding to the right: the L-step and the cross step. The L-step is used to create more distance and sidestep at the same time. The fighter withdraws his lead foot underneath him and hops out to the side with the other foot at the same time. Joanna Jedrzejczyk used this when she got too close to the fence against Jessica Andrade.

Fig. 4

The cross step is more unusual, particularly in a sport that allows low kicks. You will see Guillermo Rigondeaux and Caleb Plant use it in the boxing ring from time to time. The cross step does what it says on the tin: you step across yourself and your opponent with your lead foot. You put yourself off balance and out of position to attack momentarily, but it enables you to take a big step around the opponent when your rear foot finally moves.

But in this fight, the cross step was a direct set up for Volkanovski’s jab. Volk has always had a surprisingly good jab for a fighter who is almost always at a height disadvantage, but noticing this cross step has made revisiting the Holloway fights to check for it a priority. If the cross step sets up the jab, the L-step sets up the cross step. Figure 5 makes that madness make sense.

Volkanovski is in front of Lopes (a), and performs a quick L-step—withdrawing his left foot and kicking his right foot out to the side (b). Volk cross steps with his left foot (c), taking his lead foot across to the outside of Lopes’ before swinging his right foot into stance behind him (d). Volk cross steps again (e), lining up his feet. Lopes has been turning and following throughout this sequence, and walks straight onto a fencer’s lunge of a jab (f).

Fig. 5

Almost every good jab Volkanovski landed in this fight was preceded by a cross step that both circled him around Lopes and put his feet on a line to explode in with a bladed, single-shot jab.

Here is a terrific sequence that demonstrates Volkanovski using his motion and the cross step to set up another cracking jab. Volk scores a calf kick (b), recovers to his stance (c) and pokes a jab as Lopes follows him (d).

Fig. 6

Volkanovski immediately goes into the L-step, pulling back his left foot and kicking his right out into the sidestep (f). He steps across himself (g) and lines his feet up just in time to launch himself into Lopes as Lopes squares up to him (i).

Fig. 7

They were not all big cross steps. Volkanovski applied both sidesteps and cross steps to keep a gentle, constant circling away from Lopes’ right hand and draw Lopes forward into uncomfortable exchanges. Figure 8 shows an example of Volkanovski using a little side step and cross step to get outside Lopes’ lead foot, Lopes stepping forward with a jab to throw his right hand, and Volkanovski clocking him with an overhand right again.

Fig. 8

Where the right sidestep seemed to numb Lopes to the step-up portion of the inside low kick, Volkanovski seemed to be trying to pair the cross step—where his lead foot cut across just outside of Lopes’—with the osoto-gari . Figure 9 shows one instance where Volkanovski had Lopes stumbling off this technique.

Fig. 9

While there is some similarity to the cross step, Volkanovski needed to step his rear foot up underneath him before cross stepping into this throw, in order to get any force and not risk being thrown backwards over Lopes’ own leg.

If movement between strikes is one of striking’s vital intangibles, ring position is too. Ilia Topuria has knocked his opponents out as much with pressure and cage position as with the actual striking techniques he employs. Volkanovski’s fight with Topuria was lost on being crowded to the cage and panicked. But Diego Lopes’ complete inability to cut the cage and apply pressure made Volkanovski look like a virtuoso ring general.

Lopes’ only real answer to Volkanovski’s circling was to try the odd wheel kick. Figure 10 shows how that went. With no boundary at his back, Volkanovski was circling at a comfortable distance and the kick whizzed by with no effect.

Fig. 10

On the same card, Jean Silva used the wheel kick to punish Bryce Mitchell for repeatedly circling past his lead foot. The difference was cage position: Mitchell was never going to be able to back up through the fence to avoid the path of the kick so he had to either cover up or—if he was feeling very daring—try to duck it.

Fig. 11

Little systems like Volkanovski’s sidestepping, and the options Yothin takes off his faked right low kick interest me more than any one set up because these are the tricks that can keep working and being recycled through a fight or even a career. They are also the missing link between good fundamentals and landing those good fundamentals without simply being faster or having quicker eyes.