Awesome to watch. I’d like to see a Dan mirror between Xiahou Mao and Sanford!
Sanford’s the man 
2 of my matches from tourne this weekend.
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I had to use he 360 pad when im normally a PS3 pad player, so im not on the top of my game, but i tried my best regardless.
Edit: theres a 3rd match where i get absolutely mauled by Balrog, ill post it when it comes up, but its pretty damn bad on my part.
I’m pretty sure that’d be an awfully one-sided match. I have no delusions of grandeur to that extent, Sanford would whomp me. 
His footsies are the stuff that Gods are made of. D:
He had major issues against Zangief 
To be expected I guess but I can’t help feeling that if he used more Air Knee and EX Dankuu he would have done better x_x;;
Air Knee is crazy punishable if the Gief sees it coming (Which isn’t hard, and the payoff of 80 damage that combos into nothing is pretty crappy), and a blocked EX Danku could probably be nabbed by a reversal jab SPD, or simply beat out with normals on startup.
Good luck getting a reversal 360 off an EX Dankuu 
You’d really need to be a robot to do that and as for normals Dan can get away from them with his usual bag of tricks. Not to mention it’d beat all those normals Zangief was throwing 9/10 times.
Air Knee is safe on block, providing not too deep, beats out most air normals too and most importantly stops Lariat dead. Mixing it up with regular air attacks would allow him to get in easier.
Every other Danku resulted in a free SPD. And yes, it’s free because mk/hk Danku are -2 on block. Unless Mario was mashing like a mofo, that means he was on reaction to figuring out whether it was mk or hk Danku and reversal SPD’ing. And just because EX Danku is fast to start up doesn’t mean it recovers quickly. If people can reversal DP Abel’s Change of Direction, they can reversal SPD Dan’s EX Danku.
I believe I’ve had air knee punished with reversal SPD before. I don’t think it’s necessarily plus or safe on block on large characters. I do agree that mixing up Knee with jump-ins would have been a good way to get in. However, I don’t know how effective sheDanigans are versus Gief even if he just blocks. If you do s.mp xx lk Danku, will a reversal SPD or Lariat beat a cr.lk or lk Danku followup? Note that a good player will block it standing to reduce your frame advantage. Will a reversal lariat beat cr.lk xx lk Danku in between the two moves?
That’s because MK and HK Dankuu give you all the time in the world to get the reversal off whereas EX is over before you know it. And yeah, I reckon he was mashing like a mofo, who wouldn’t when it’s guaranteed big damage? I know it’s what, -4 on block, but how long does it take to do a 360 motion? You’ll only get that in if you’re expecting it, it’s just too fast. He never tried it though so we’ll never know…
He only tried Air Knee once, and it worked (countered Lariat). Sucks how Zangief’s slap attack has the same range as a Gadouken, seriously?
According to the frame data c.LK takes 4 frames, Dan Knee gives you 0 advantage on block and Zangief’s SPDs come out in 2 frames making it a tie so as a reversal it should win. LK Dankuu takes a while to start up but no idea from what frame you’re in the air, guessing it’d beat SPD but not Lariat. Back dashing gets you away from the SPD, not sure about the Lariat. Vertical jumping might get you out the way of a Lariat in time then you can Knee on the way down and should hit him.
I’m guessing a reversal lariat inbetween the c.LK and Knee would beat the Knee but the c.LK is pretty fast, you’d have to be spamming lariat to get that in or already be wanting to do a lariat regardless.
Think it deserves some testing 
I was doing Knee pretty deep, reversal Lariat seems to beat everything but dashing backwards (which Banishing Flat will get). Reversal SPD seems to grab anything other than moving out of range too so seems like a bit of an Abel situation with buggering off pretty much your only option until he figures out Flats will get you
EX Dankuu from range you can dash away and avoid reversal SPDs, I can obviously get them up close but I am expecting them after all
Nice effort D-bus, you did well and even taunted! Adapted to Cammy fairly well, but announcers were right missed punishing opportunities (nerves get you sometimes). Learned something thanks to you, spacing an air EX Danku can get you an opportunity to punish Sagat with a combo it seems. About Gief air knee isn’t safe, even with proper spacing, something about recovery frames. It can beat SPD and lariat, but if they turtle in crouch position and wait for that air knee they can trade with lariat, in my experience at least… Sugami they usually depend on reversal SPDs, even attempting to link seems unsafe because there is enough spacing for his SPD range… but good luck with that. The only “safe” option is getting a ground lk Danku and back dashing. EX is unsafe with reversal, -3 on block.
yes sanford or wong would beat XiahouMao… but please dont confuse a good player who just understands SF4 better with “one of us” who are people who actually use DAN.
XM gets more props from me because he grew up using dan and plays dan every day… not just when its fun
The thing about Air Knee is to stop them from Lariating every jump in attempt. Damn sure they’ll do it the first time they see you jumping at them and Air Knee beats it clean. Once they stop trying to Lariat jump-ins you can use simple j.HK > c.MK xx Gadouken combos to get in and apply some pressure. I didn’t do any testing but I’m sure it has been mentioned before that with right spacing it is safe.
And like I said, EX Dankuu is safe from the right distance too, tried and tested.
Don’t you main Abel?
Sanford seems pretty serious about Dan, he kept with him after having huge troubles with Zangief, didn’t he have an opportunity to change character at one point?
Shame on you. That’s not the Saikyo Way to talk. Mao may have more Saikyo Spirit, it’s true, but that doesn’t mean Sanford is completely devoid of it. :annoy:
I think it was a grudge match casual because mariodood got beat up by sanfords dan in the previous tournament. Hence the not changing.
Hehe perhaps, wasn’t the “grudge” against his Bison though? He could have been a meanie and changed so he couldn’t get his “revenge”
Yes I know air knee is to stuff lariat, but if they crouch and lariat last minute it will trade. Dependent on spacing, if you assume they are waiting for you in standing position you’ll beat it clean. Anyways I’d like to see a video of safe air knee then and EX Danku if can find/make one please, I’d like to learn anything. When I attempted every type of air knee (different trajectory and spacing) on a Zangief I’d get reversal SPD, I know how to stuff lariats when they lariat jump ins.
Just a heads up guys, Hibiki San has added a new video.
http://zoome.jp/saikyooo/diary/43/
Guys, you’re in for a treat with this one. Amazing.
Awesome. Thank you for the video. I just watched one of Hibiki San’s videos the other day and it made me fall in love with Dan all over again.
cross-up j.MK > s.MP xx Gadouken xx Legendary Taunt xx Shissou Buraiken, not once, not twice but three times! Awesomeness