Giorgio Petrosyan is a high level southpaw muay thai kickboxer who currently fights for Glory, ONE Championship, and Bellator, as well as a few smaller promotions. Jeff Chan from MMA Shredded just made a pretty neat video detailing the tactics used by Giorgio Petrosyan in his fights. The tactics below have been used successfully against some high-level kickboxers like Robin Van Roosmalen, Buakaw, Mike Zambidis, and Dzhabar Askerov to name just a few.  

Giorgio Petrosyan is a southpaw so these tactics are described from a southpaw’s point of view against an orthodox fighter. However, you can readily adopt it to your game even if you are an orthodox fighter.

1/ Push opponent back into a strike

Giorgio likes to use his high (and tight) guard to push his opponent back and follow up with a quick left kick to the lead leg or to the body. This is used against especially aggressive opponents who like to move forward. The nice thing about this tactic is that when you push your opponent back they have to plant their legs to stay balanced while being pushed back—so that the chance of them checking your kick is minute.

2/ Step-in rear knee

While within kicking distance, Petrosyan likes to step in and throw that left rear knee to the opponent’s body. While stepping in, he will use his lead hand to defend or to hold his opponent’s head while throwing the knee.

3/ Rear kick to opponent’s rear leg

The orthodox fighter’s rear leg will rarely get kicked. But Petrosyan likes to kick his opponents there. This is a good tactic as the rear leg is rarely ever checked. And if he sees that his opponent will check the rear leg, he will switch the kick to kick the opponent’s front leg. Because he is a southpaw, he will have to step toward his opponent’s power hand in order to attack the rear leg. So if you are doing this, be careful to keep your guard up while kicking.

4/ Lead hand control to a strike

Lead hand control is essential if you are southpaw fighting orthodox fighters (and vice versa). With this technique, Petrosyan uses the lead hand to paw the opponent’s lead hand to control the jab. When doing this, make sure your lead hand is higher than your opponent’s lead hand. This will allow you to push their lead hand down so you can land a quick jab or a cross.

5/ Underhook brush against a lead teep

Instead of brushing the teep away, Petrosyan will use the underhook brush to lift the opponent’s leg up to render them unbalance. From there, he will be able to land a cross or a kick. If you are going to land that cross, be sure that your lead foot is outside of your opponent’s lead foot (the foot that you are brushing)

6/ Right (lead) hook counter

Another tactic used by him is to use the quick lead hook. This can be set up many ways. You can paw and control your opponent’s lead hand using his lead hand and then land a quick hook. Remember to make sure that the opponent’s lead hand is under your lead hand. Additionally, this can be done by stepping your lead foot to the outside of your orthodox opponent’s lead foot to get that angle to land that quick hook. By the time you land that lead hook, you will be in a very good position to land additional strikes because your lead foot is outside your opponent’s lead foot.

7/ Cross against a kick (tit-for-tat)

This tactic hurts, but it works. It also requires a bit of timing because you have to do it exactly when your opponent kicks you. This will also require you to eat the kick to the lead leg though because you will need your lead foot planted to land that powerful cross. This works extremely well against orthodox fighters who do not have their guard up when kicking.If you want to try this technique, you have to make your opponent pay the price. Otherwise, if they keep doing it and aren’t afraid of your cross, you lead foot will be pretty dead after 5-6 good kicks.

8/ Hook-cross combination

This is an easy hook-cross boxing combination. What he does is step to the outside to throw a lead hook to open up the middle and then throw that cross down the pipe. Sometimes, he will add another hook after the cross.

There you have it, 8 tactics used by Giorgio Petrosyan, brought to you by Jeff Chan of MMA Shredded. Here is the video by Jeff Chan below if you are interested in watching it: