Tips for setting the pace of a match? And tips for better angling?

Well setting the pace is partly dependent on what your opponent is doing and the pace he is trying to establish. A lot of what you are asking about will depend on him. There were several things I would do and one of them would be to have the cardio to fight every round, including the last round as fast and fierce as the first round. That way even if I was not able to maybe dictate things in the beginning or intermediate rounds I always knew that I would be able to in the later rounds with more success.

The above being said I would sometimes have as part of my fight plan to stay in the middle of the ring and dominate that space and not let my opponent establish control of it. Usually once that was done then I would start to walk my opponent down, putting pressure on him and back him up along the ropes or into the corners. This meant I was throwing more than he was and for every time he would connect on me I would basically try to double that while mostly moving forward and trying to back him up with steady, constant pressure. If that was not as affective as I was looking for then I might also resort to using angles at times when attacking but the emphasis was always on backing him up and me moving forward doubling his effective output. Under pressure like that many fighters will start to buckle and give ground and if they could not match me cardio wise then they knew they were in real trouble by the mid rounds and me with a good lead on the score cards for rounds won.

As for using angles I would step to the left or right side of my opponent's lead foot with my lead foot and make sure my hands were up and in position and then throw as he started to square up to me again. I would usually set this up with a fake first of some kind and that fake was a repeat of something that I had just done when stepping straight in towards my opponent. That way I was also programing him into thinking I was going to step straight in again when he saw the fake and by the time he realized it was just a fake then it would be to late and I could sometimes catch him before he squared up to me.

At other times I would move laterally probing a little to see if he was a little slow seeing and reacting to things. If so I would remember that as I continued moving back and forth laterally and when I got back to that spot in relation to him then it would not be a probing jab or kick but instead one with speed and power behind it in an effort to nail him.

Sometimes I would give way a little if my opponent was wanting to be aggressive and give him a head fake one way while going the opposite and then throw, trying to catch him coming in with a jab or hook. Sometimes I would not even head fake him but instead just time his attack and sidestep and fire with something on that new angle in relation to him.