With the way that Gilbert Burns handled Tyron Woodley on Saturday night, a newer fan might be forgiven for wondering just how Woodley stood atop the UFC welterweight division for so long. Were a revisionist historian to diminish Woodley’s run down to “strong wrestling and a good right hand”, it would be easy to get annoyed at but difficult to argue against. At his best, Woodley was just that—hard to take down, and hard to hit clean without getting hit back at three times the force. It resulted in some spectacular knockouts but it also resulted in some woeful staring contests.

It seems as though Woodley has slowed down, or at least was feeling the effects of ring rust in his return, but Gilbert Burns could not have known that when he marched out for round one and immediately countered Woodley’s first right hand with a headache-maker of his own. Through the following twenty four minutes, Burns performed a masterclass—taking away Woodley’s best weapons and finding his own opportunities to score, to hurt, and to even take Woodley down.

But the fight was jump started at step two of the plan: countering the Woodley rush. Step one was where the majority of the fight took place and that is where we shall begin. In the break between the second and third rounds, the camera went to Gilbert Burns’ corner and Henri Hooft could be heard saying “if you can touch his hands, your kicks are there.” Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping concluded on the broadcast that this meant if Burns could land punches, he should follow with kicks. The way Burns actually fought throughout the bout was to lead with kicks whenever Woodley reached to check his hands—punching combinations into kicks weren’t a factor.

With the low-low kick coming to prominence in MMA it is important to recognize that it is thrown from a different range to the regular low kick to the thigh. Where traditional kickboxing combinations put a fighter in position to chop down with the shin on the thigh, the low-low kick is primarily used from beyond punching range to punish or to be followed with punches. Due to Woodley’s long stance his lead leg was well ahead of him and the low-low kick or calf kick was being presented. Any time Burns was physically close enough to engage in the handfight, he was close enough to throw the calf kick.

While you will often see fighters checking the path of the opponent’s lead hand and clearing it to enter on their own, much of Burns’ effort was on stopping, harassing, and removing Woodley’s right hand from his guard. Throughout the fight Burns would reach around the side of Woodley’s right hand and pull it forward only to hook behind it. He would also slap around a hook if Woodley began to reach too far forward of himself to engage in the handfight. This paired with Burns’ excellent use of the jab to the body and the head.

While this wasn’t Rory MacDonald’s jabbing masterclass against Woodley, the same principles applied as Woodley overcompensated and reached for the jab, only to be punished with shots around the side.

Pounding in the low kicks from a range just beyond Woodley’s reach was the first part of the plan. Part two was countering Woodley’s right hand as he exploded off the fence. This had been a stumbling point for so many of Woodley’s opponents and it is well worth noting that we are talking about speed and reactions here as much as we are about technique—Woodley did look slower than we are used to. However, Burns did a great job of giving ground and letting Woodley punch his way off the fence at air when he needed to. Burns was at his most effective when he crowded in and intercepted Woodley’s charges though.

The tone of the fight was set in the opening minute as Burns timed Woodley entering and landed a right hand of his own. Not only did this seem to surprise Woodley who is used to opponents trying to flee from his charges off the fence, but Burns did much of his damage by doggedly following up with uppercuts and knees from the collar tie while Woodley was caught off guard.

Later, Woodley’s confidence came back for an instant and he stepped in to swing, only to be met with a beautiful short double leg from Durinho. Similar level changes allowed Burns to push Woodley to the fence in the later rounds and hit a nice inside trip. More importantly, an effective takedown in the early going allowed Burns to use the level change as a feint—even if he had no intention of shooting for the takedown naked.

Burns’ use of the left kick was especially pretty. Showing absolute fearlessness he was able to use the kick as a counter underneath Woodley’s right hand on a couple of occasions. Counter kicking is a tricky game but the pay-off can be enormous. Either you blast a guy’s liver with your shin as his right elbow leaves his side, or you make it clear that this is a distinct possibility and he becomes reluctant to let his right hand stray too far from home.

While Woodley looked slow on the feet and showed his usual lethargy from the clinch, we must give him praise for how very slick he looked on the ground. While Woodley’s 95% takedown defence stat took a bump in this fight, he proved that it wasn’t all that was stopping him from being held down. Mounted in the early moments by a world class grappler, Woodley attempted a sit up escape (the kind that Cub Swanson often demonstrates from the bottom of mount), before being forced flat again. As Durinho moved towards an S-mount, Woodley timed a bridge and roll perfectly.

Woodley’s wall walk looked every bit as sharp as you would expect from a longtime American Top Team member. Figure 1 shows Woodley performing the basic technical stand up style of wall walk from closed guard. In (1) he has opened his legs and begun to get onto his elbow along the fence. In (2) he extracts his left foot and gets it to the ground underneath him, then he must bring his right foot to between himself and Burns in order to stand on it. In (3), Woodley begins to stand on his right foot.

Fig. 1

In this instance Burns used his left leg to hook Woodley’s right leg, knowing that he needed to drive off it to complete the stand up. But Figure 2 shows the conclusion of this sequence: the moment that Burns began striking, Woodley’s leg slipped free, based between the two men, and Woodley exploded back to his feet.

Fig. 2

In the fourth round we were treated to that match up between modern cage offence and classic wall walking as Burns hooked the near leg and looked to snatch Woodley’s far wrist as he posted on it. In Figure 3, Woodley begins his stand up along the wall and this time Burns is able to hook Woodley’s right leg with his own right leg (3).

Fig. 3

From here you will have seen everyone from Khabib Nurmagomedov to Dan Ige to Bryce Mitchell fold their opponent down on the posting arm and trap it under their weight—freeing the top man’s other hand to punch. Diego Ferreira even transitioned to this top position when he got the incredibly slippery Anthony Pettis’ back and finished him with a rear naked choke that was actually applied sort of on the side.

Figure 4 shows how Woodley was able to go two-on-one with an arm drag grip on Burns’ inside hand. Burns drove his head into Woodley and drew his arm back in an attempt to free it and start punching (2). The moment that Burns’ wrist broke free and he began punching, Woodley was up on his posting arm again (3) and swinging his right elbow back to grab the underhook on the fence side (4). From here Woodley fell back to a half guard.

Fig. 4

After a few moments of battling in a flat half guard, Woodley was able to get the underhook on the trapped leg side and scooted back onto the fence to perform the more traditional underhook stand up. The top man has a lot more trouble getting to the posting hand in a well executed underhook get up from half guard than when he can put himself in that kind of “Turk reach-around” from Figure 3. Burns, knowing that there wasn’t much time left and showing that Blackzilians influence, attempted a guillotine, and ended up rolling and catching a leg before the round expired.

This was a terrific performance from Gilbert Burns which was kicked off with confidence and snowballed from there. Meanwhile it was just more of Woodley doing what Woodley does to little effect. Especially strange is how often Din Thomas can be seen asking Woodley for combinations and activity in his corner—in many fights—while knowing that Woodley just won’t follow the advice.

Ultimately, Burns’ big victory only serves to complicate the UFC’s welterweight division even more. Jorge Masvidal is in position to fight for Kamaru Usman’s title but is seemingly more interested in an easy money rematch with Nate Diaz. Meanwhile, Leon Edwards missed out on this opportunity to fight Woodley—with that fight originally being booked as the main event in London—and is now not only highly ranked with barely any public recognition but there is a good chance Burns leapfrogs him the next time the UFC ranking committee hold a meeting in their clown car.