This is important because southpaws get used to moving in a certain way. For years, the safe move was to circle left and stay away from the right hand. After years of doing this, the movement stops feeling like a choice and starts to feel like instinct.
Against another left-hander, that same move can carry you straight into a left hand.
Tim Bradley pointed this out in his outline. When two southpaws meet, the movement that usually keeps them safe can put them directly in the line of fire. If one of the men drifts like this out of habit, he runs into the other man’s best shot. It fits this game.
Russell fights like a man who wants to take space. He tapped the sting, ducked and stepped behind it. He doesn’t wait long. Hiraoka prefers to ground, set traps and fire back when the other man comes to. He is comfortable stepping back and letting the fight come to him.
Russell’s forward thrust can overwhelm opponents, but stepping in on another southpaw also puts him within range of the straight left, a punch that Hiraoka throws with authority and one that Russell himself relies on just as heavily. If one of them falls into that old habit of circling the same road, he’s going to give the other man a clean look.
That’s why the fight looks closer than the betting might indicate, as Russell can control long stretches with pressure while Hiraoka only needs one clean shot to turn a round, and both men are used to being the southpaw who controls that angle.
On February 21, that track belongs to both of them.
