ANNOUNCEMENTS

Fight Plan: Roy Docyogen

By John Hudson Go

Warriors collide as URCC pinweight champion Roy “The Punisher” Docyogen meets Rodel “Kid” Orais for the superfight in URCC Baguio 4: Battleground at the Baguio Convention Center this February 18, 2012.

In this article, we take a look at Roy Docyogen’s keys to victory against former WBC title holder Rodel Orais.

Among the many champions Team Lakay has produced, Roy Docyogen is known for his superior boxing and intelligent game plans. The Punisher does not rely on his fists alone, but uses the entire arsenal afforded to him by his Wushu background to gain the upper hand inside the squared ring. Watch his grueling 20-minute battle against Alvin “Sindikato” Ramirez in URCC XIX and you know what I mean.

Rodel Orais has boxed all his life. Contending for different titles during his professional career, Kid has carried this penchant for using his knuckles in his burgeoning MMA career as he won his first two bouts via strikes. While the camp he is coming from – Grapplers MMA – would suggest that Orais may be training more than his standup, the strong wrestling base of Team Lakay members would more likely lead Orais to train for a defensive ground game than an offensive one. Orais has shown that he has the ability to implement a good top game, but his limited grappling experience will have little possibility of countering the years of wrestling Docyogen has under Team Lakay.

That said, Docyogen will own Orais on the ground. But the trick is to get the takedown without eating KO-worthy strikes from Kid. Moreover, given the weight difference, The Punisher has to set up his takedowns to make sure the heavier Orais will not be able to sprawl or reverse their positions easily. This is where The Punisher’s more versatile striking comes to play. Docyogen can vary the levels of strikes he inflicts on Kid to keep the boxer guessing where he would land next. After “training” Orais to guard against upper body strikes, an uncontested takedown will be ready for Docyogen to take.

Alternatively, Docyogen can start with Orais’s working premise (that he will be going for a takedown) and slip in a KO/TKO finish. Boxers are trained to protect their head and body, not their legs. As far as his last two fights are concerned, Orais still maintains a boxer’s stance. The Punisher can pepper the thighs of Orais with heavy leg kicks. The result would either be a crippled Orais and a referee stoppage akin to Maurice Smith and Pedro Rizzo fame, or Kid changing levels to defend and attempt to catch Docyogen’s kicks. (Boxers generally do not check kicks as kickboxers do, and Jilmar Tangayan used this to his advantage while his URCC XX fight with Orais lasted.) Then Orais will have to drop an arm or both, and his unprotected head will be available for The Punisher to decapitate.

A licensed and practicing architect, Docyogen has in all probability crafted up a blueprint of how he wants this fight to go. The question remains, what is Orais’s fight plan when he steps inside the ring with the 9-0 pinweight champion?