Sanctus boss fight

[Pekop, le Roi des Mérous]

Well, I need some help.
I apologize in advance for my orthography, it's not my native language.

I'm currently on my Dante Must Die run, and I had fun until I stumbled upon Sanctus.
Like the precedent runs, the game, despite some flaws, remained enjoyable and feasible up to the moment it throws us in the face a mid life Sanctus boss fight.
And then, it become one of the most gruesome experiences I ever experimented in playing, one of these where you question yourself if it isn't better to get diarrhea instead of this.
Simply put Sanctus boss fight as a trash boss isn't enough to pay homage to what can be considered the epitome of disgustingly bad game design, the death of the fun, antithesis of anything stylish. A true GARBAGE where I'm obviously plunged knees deep in the ****

To simply said the things straight, when Sanctus's shield is down in phase two, I'm totally unable to reach Sanctus. This crappy coward outrun me any time I try to get him in the grasp of Nero.

Il well learned to not chase him as long as it doesn't attack, and I grab the orbs to fly to him when he does. And then, this is where it didn't click for me. The bastard, even with a seemingly good timing , DOESN'T let me enough time to punch him in the air before going back to the statue. The timing is stupidly strict.
It's not a matter that I cannot dodge is attacks (like the orbs dive), its really I cannot get a reliable way to get to his level before he ran away. Even worst, at many occasions, when Nero get to grappling him, he overdoes, and get too far in the back of Sanctus to let more than a punny sword's swing hit him.
My bests had been to get to him at the perfect distance, and do a Devil Trigger activation to benefit from the explosive effect before slashing the old fart.
At this point, the fight goes on forever in a ridiculous way, I do peanut damages to him, and I rely on sheer luck to finish him, like I did in the precedent runs.
It's clearly NOT the good way.

So, what do i can do wrong? What can be the optimal combo?
At my eyes, it seem that just after breaking his shield, there is a not so obvious chain of quick actions to undertake in order to get him pinned down, but I my efforts to get this happening had been in vain.

Thank for anyone who read this.

[Director Bison]

I recorded an Example of how I do the second half of the fight, if it will help you.

https://streamable.com/5rjb24

Calibur in pretty much the best way to close in on him, and parry the Statue with your buster,

[Pekop, le Roi des Mérous]

We can parry the Savior's punch with our grab? I knew I missed out something dumb and it met my expectations ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also, doing a Calibur instead of directly grappling old fart is much more reliable as it avoid to let Nero doing a overshoot that let him go behind the boss.

Thank you very much, with your tips, the fight was more enjoyable, I had plenty of opportunities to finally slap the old man's ass.

[76561198000973506]

Use holy water when his shield is down