Hey chaps, just a little piece in the last few days before the big return to the Land of the Rising Sun! Once again, hope you don't mind clicking the link to HKL, it is a sister site and it's full of great content.

Cheers,

Jack

At UFC 144 two big men with KO power will meet in the heavyweight tilt between New Zealand's own, Mark Hunt, and the French Muay Thai practitioner, Cheik Kongo. While Mark Hunt has won the K-1 Grand Prix, the highest title in the world of competitive striking, his technical skill is often overshadowed by the fact that it was largely his physical attributes which won him this title. Hunt only succeeded in getting to the tournament final by injuring Ray Sefo's eye in a losing effort against Sefo in the semi finals, drawing his fellow Kiwi into a brawl because he could not deal with Sefo's superior technical kickboxing. Cheik Kongo, on the other hand, receives enormous credit for his string of kickboxing titles despite a complete absence of any verifiable kickboxing record. Kongo was once, though it is hard to believe now, in serious title contention in the UFC, after picking up 3 solid TKO wins through 2008 - 2009 before meeting Cain Velasquez and being taken down seemingly at will en route to a unanimous decision loss.

It is hoped that this fight will remain standing, in which case it is important to consider the strengths of each man in that domain. Hunt's abilities are well known - he has one of the most solid chins in the history of combat sports. In his career he has taken Cro Cop's high kick flush on the jaw, and the strongest blows from Ray Sefo, Mike Bernardo and Jerome Le Banner. Hunt has mixed it up with the best kickboxers in the world and come out with mixed results, but has been knocked out cold only once, in an MMA match against Melvin Manhoef, perhaps the biggest puncher, pound for pound in the world. Hunt also holds a thunderous punch - being able to knock out the iron jawed Jerome Le Banner, and break the orbital bone of Ray Sefo.

Once Hunt entered MMA, his career was perhaps the worst nurtured of any prospect, meeting Hidehiko Yoshida, Dan Bobish, Wanderlei Silva and Mirko Cro Cop in his first four fights. Somehow managing, with a complete absence of MMA experience, to get the better of the latter three. Clearly Hunt fights best against strikers, Cro Cop and Silva being the two highest profile strikers in MMA at the time. But his matches against Josh Barnett, Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem and Sean McCorkle exposed his woefully inadequate takedown and submission defense. Since his loss to McCorkle in his UFC debut, however, Hunt has experienced a career renaissance - developing the takedown defense to repeatedly stuff Brock Lesnar's training partner, Chris Tuchscherer en route to a walk-away uppercut knockout during a sprawl. Hunt continued his improvement, out grappling veteran Ben Rothwell, and brutalizing him on both the feet and the floor. While Rothwell is no master of the ground game or of takedowns, he is certainly a better wrestler than Kongo, and will make Kongo's night long if he is forced to revert to his wrestling strategy.

Hunt has, however, been prone to eating too many shots due to his great chin's allowing him to. In a way reminiscent of Chuck Liddell, who could not learn to keep his hands up even when working with Howard Davis Jr., Hunt may be too stuck in his ways to learn to keep his hands up. It was this fault which got him knocked out by Manhoef and stunned by Gegard Mousasi, who is not known as a hard puncher.

Continue reading this post »

At UFC 144 two big men with KO power will meet in the heavyweight tilt between New Zealand's own, Mark Hunt, and the French Muay Thai practitioner, Cheik Kongo. While Mark Hunt has won the K-1 Grand Prix, the highest title in the world of competitive striking, his technical skill is often overshadowed by the fact that it was largely his physical attributes which won him this title. Hunt only succeeded in getting to the tournament final by injuring Ray Sefo's eye in a losing effort against Sefo in the semi finals, drawing his fellow Kiwi into a brawl because he could not deal with Sefo's superior technical kickboxing. Cheik Kongo, on the other hand, receives enormous credit for his string of kickboxing titles despite a complete absence of any verifiable kickboxing record. Kongo was once, though it is hard to believe now, in serious title contention in the UFC, after picking up 3 solid TKO wins through 2008 - 2009 before meeting Cain Velasquez and being taken down seemingly at will en route to a unanimous decision loss.

It is hoped that this fight will remain standing, in which case it is important to consider the strengths of each man in that domain. Hunt's abilities are well known - he has one of the most solid chins in the history of combat sports. In his career he has taken Cro Cop's high kick flush on the jaw, and the strongest blows from Ray Sefo, Mike Bernardo and Jerome Le Banner. Hunt has mixed it up with the best kickboxers in the world and come out with mixed results, but has been knocked out cold only once, in an MMA match against Melvin Manhoef, perhaps the biggest puncher, pound for pound in the world. Hunt also holds a thunderous punch - being able to knock out the iron jawed Jerome Le Banner, and break the orbital bone of Ray Sefo.

Once Hunt entered MMA, his career was perhaps the worst nurtured of any prospect, meeting Hidehiko Yoshida, Dan Bobish, Wanderlei Silva and Mirko Cro Cop in his first four fights. Somehow managing, with a complete absence of MMA experience, to get the better of the latter three. Clearly Hunt fights best against strikers, Cro Cop and Silva being the two highest profile strikers in MMA at the time. But his matches against Josh Barnett, Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem and Sean McCorkle exposed his woefully inadequate takedown and submission defense. Since his loss to McCorkle in his UFC debut, however, Hunt has experienced a career renaissance - developing the takedown defense to repeatedly stuff Brock Lesnar's training partner, Chris Tuchscherer en route to a walk-away uppercut knockout during a sprawl. Hunt continued his improvement, out grappling veteran Ben Rothwell, and brutalizing him on both the feet and the floor. While Rothwell is no master of the ground game or of takedowns, he is certainly a better wrestler than Kongo, and will make Kongo's night long if he is forced to revert to his wrestling strategy.

Hunt has, however, been prone to eating too many shots due to his great chin's allowing him to. In a way reminiscent of Chuck Liddell, who could not learn to keep his hands up even when working with Howard Davis Jr., Hunt may be too stuck in his ways to learn to keep his hands up. It was this fault which got him knocked out by Manhoef and stunned by Gegard Mousasi, who is not known as a hard puncher.

Continue reading this post »

Hey folks,

I had fantastic feedback on my book ideas so I will forge ahead with writing and photography and should have them out some time in the Easter break, (a nice treat for yourselves while the kids or younger siblings are preoccupied with chocolate perhaps?) but your job isn't over yet!

I have amalgamated all the names that came up in discussion here and at the UG and there are a LOT. So I would love it if the kind people of Bloody Elbow would decide for me which strikers are going to have their game and tricks broken down in unprecedented detail, with instructional photographs!

These are, however, only the more interesting options - suggested by you guys. Already certain to have a full game breakdown are:

- Lyoto Machida

- Badr Hari

- Giorgio Petrosyan

- Joe Louis

- Roy Jones Jr.

- Jerome Le Banner

- Jose Aldo

-Anderson Silva

and a few others of my own choosing whom I haven't decided yet. What I need to know is who you guys find the most interesting out of the following fighters! I will take the 8 with the most votes for the book - and if it is met well I might publish another - but I won't get ahead of myself!

Hey folks, I'm beginning work on a pair of instructional books dedicated to striking - they will be in ebook format and contain photographs taken specifically for the ebooks, going into far greater detail than my breakdowns for HKL and on my blog. I will be selling them through my site and eventually through Amazon. Of course I'll try to keep the costs down - as a kid who spent every month's allowance on striking books and was routinely disappointed - I believe that knowledge shouldn't come at a premium.

The first will be a comprehensive guide to striking from angles because it's a topic that simply hasn't been explored in any depth even by the great boxing, kickboxing and MMA guides out there.

The second will be an homage to K. V. Gradapalov's "Tactics of the Foreign Masters". It will feature breakdowns of the key techniques and strategies of some of the biggest names in modern boxing, kickboxing and MMA. I will also be including my translation of the original Russian book which helped me so much, as an appendix.

The two things I would like to know are:

1) Is there any interest in these books?

2) For the second book - which fighters' striking are you especially interested in? I have lots of ideas but would really like to aim for the ones with the most interest.

As always, be honest, and now more than ever - be brutal =)

Jack

Hey chaps, just a little breakdown of the strengths and weaknesses of Frankie Edgar's much discussed stand up. Hope it brings something new to the table and that you don't mind clicking the link to HKL if you enjoy it.

Cheers, Jack

Floyd Patterson, former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, decreed that to win in boxing all that is required is speed; speed of hands to win exchanges, and speed of foot to dictate when they take place. Frankie Edgar has both of these qualities and as the UFC lightweight division's "Cinderella man" upset BJ Penn twice before having two back and forth matches with the gigantic wrestler, Gray Maynard. Frankie Edgar is always entertaining to watch, but he is never going to be a big draw such as Anderson Silva or his predecessor, BJ Penn were - he is neither a submission finisher or a knockout artist. What is unique about Edgar, however, is his method of taking apart lightweights - exploiting the same lack of striking confidence and experience in the lightweight division that Bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz does in his own weightclass: a lack of ability to deal with lateral movement. Is it possible for Benson Henderson to out-strike Edgar? Of course. Will he actually out-strike Edgar? That remains to be seen, but the opportunities do exist to pick Edgar apart, it is whether Henderson's coaches have noticed this and whether he can focus when he is face to face with Edgar's perpetual motion style.

To understand how one might beat Edgar on the feet it is important to note his greatest successes and the times which he has shown weaknesses. In looking at Edgar's fight tape and record, nothing stands out more than his defeat of then number one lightweight in the world, BJ Penn. Penn was touted as a phenomenal boxer with a counter jab that jacked his opponent's head back, slick counter-punches and power which is rarely seen at lightweight. What Edgar exposed in Penn, however, was an inability to deal with lateral movement. Just as Nick Diaz does, Penn often stands in a boxing stance with his front foot turned in to maximize the reach on his dipping counter jab. This does, however mean that circling to the outside of this foot makes it hard for him to set up his punches and exposes the back of his leg for low kicks and his jaw for right hand leads. This circling is Edgar's modus operandi, and against Penn - whose dipping jab and emphasis on head movement is tailor made for inexperienced opponents who are willing to run straight at him, hoping to overwhelm him with combinations - it worked a treat. The fact that he kept having to turn and face Frankie meant that he was often unprepared from Frankie's own charging combinations.

Edgar's weakest showings on the feet have been his slow starts against Gray Maynard. Though traditionally not a big finisher (his only notable KO coming over himself), Maynard caught Frankie hard in the opening rounds of both of their title fights. In the first of these two title fights, at UFC 125, Edgar was caught with a slapping left hook, which did not carry a full rotation of Maynard's hips, but caught Edgar so off guard that it was enough to send him stumbling backward and almost cost him his hard earned UFC title. In watching this knockdown, Frankie is circling away from Maynard's left hand, then pauses as if he is ready to circle back the other way, in traditional Edgar fashion - unfortunately his right hand is down by his chest when he intends to change direction so he meets the full force of the left hook while leaning into it.

Edgar's habit of dropping his hands as he circles is a bad one, and while Penn was inadequate at chasing him, instead trying to bait him in, Maynard's aggressive pressure in the first rounds of both of their fights put him in position to punch into the space into which Edgar was moving. Circling into the left hook without adequate protection has produced some fantastic knockouts in the past, despite the hook lacking power it is hard to see coming and much of the force is provided by the opponent's movement into it. Here is Mitsuhiro Ishida, whose chin is fairly solid, circling into a short left hand of Hirota (the arm which Aoki went on to savagely break). Notice how Ishida is almost immediately out cold, and that the hole through which Hirota's punch entered was not especially large - Ishida could still be seen to have his hands up, but still lacked protection.

Continue reading this post »

Floyd Patterson, former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, decreed that to win in boxing all that is required is speed; speed of hands to win exchanges, and speed of foot to dictate when they take place. Frankie Edgar has both of these qualities and as the UFC lightweight division's "Cinderella man" upset BJ Penn twice before having two back and forth matches with the gigantic wrestler, Gray Maynard. Frankie Edgar is always entertaining to watch, but he is never going to be a big draw such as Anderson Silva or his predecessor, BJ Penn were - he is neither a submission finisher or a knockout artist. What is unique about Edgar, however, is his method of taking apart lightweights - exploiting the same lack of striking confidence and experience in the lightweight division that Bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz does in his own weightclass: a lack of ability to deal with lateral movement. Is it possible for Benson Henderson to out-strike Edgar? Of course. Will he actually out-strike Edgar? That remains to be seen, but the opportunities do exist to pick Edgar apart, it is whether Henderson's coaches have noticed this and whether he can focus when he is face to face with Edgar's perpetual motion style.

To understand how one might beat Edgar on the feet it is important to note his greatest successes and the times which he has shown weaknesses. In looking at Edgar's fight tape and record, nothing stands out more than his defeat of then number one lightweight in the world, BJ Penn. Penn was touted as a phenomenal boxer with a counter jab that jacked his opponent's head back, slick counter-punches and power which is rarely seen at lightweight. What Edgar exposed in Penn, however, was an inability to deal with lateral movement. Just as Nick Diaz does, Penn often stands in a boxing stance with his front foot turned in to maximize the reach on his dipping counter jab. This does, however mean that circling to the outside of this foot makes it hard for him to set up his punches and exposes the back of his leg for low kicks and his jaw for right hand leads. This circling is Edgar's modus operandi, and against Penn - whose dipping jab and emphasis on head movement is tailor made for inexperienced opponents who are willing to run straight at him, hoping to overwhelm him with combinations - it worked a treat. The fact that he kept having to turn and face Frankie meant that he was often unprepared from Frankie's own charging combinations.

Edgar's weakest showings on the feet have been his slow starts against Gray Maynard. Though traditionally not a big finisher (his only notable KO coming over himself), Maynard caught Frankie hard in the opening rounds of both of their title fights. In the first of these two title fights, at UFC 125, Edgar was caught with a slapping left hook, which did not carry a full rotation of Maynard's hips, but caught Edgar so off guard that it was enough to send him stumbling backward and almost cost him his hard earned UFC title. In watching this knockdown, Frankie is circling away from Maynard's left hand, then pauses as if he is ready to circle back the other way, in traditional Edgar fashion - unfortunately his right hand is down by his chest when he intends to change direction so he meets the full force of the left hook while leaning into it.

More including animated gifs after the jump.

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Diego Sanchez fought a 3 round war against man of the hour, Jake Ellenberger last night in Omaha, Nebraska, and provided us with what he called a "dogfight". Their meeting won fight of the night honors and after taking a savage beating through 2 and a half rounds Diego eventually mounted some offence when he took Ellenberger's back on the ground and began raining down his trademark ground and pound. While this was a great moment for Sanchez and his many supporters, it does not signify - as many are claiming - that Diego would have gone on to win in a 5 round fight. Diego was repeatedly lit up on the feet as he ran in with his trademark flurries and many of the moments where Ellenberger counter punched Sanchez could easily have been lifted straight from the BJ Penn fight at UFC 107.

Diego deserves enormous respect, he fought in front of possibly the most hostile crowd in UFC history who booed him at every opportunity, even after he had turned in a performance which was full of heart. Unfortunately he still showed all of the holes in his game that I commented on here. He still runs in with powerless flurries which either end in a predictable shot or a predictable high kick, and he still carries his lead hand down by his waste - SUICIDE for a southpaw. A good southpaw will never get jabbed, Diego seems to eat them non-stop. Additionally, while Diego has still never been knocked out, his chin is rapidly declining; the shots Ellenberger clipped him with throughout the bout made him stumble, roll his eyes or drop to his knees, while nothing that Sanchez threw on the feet even fazed Ellenberger.

Where then is Diego's place in the division? Clearly he is still tough enough to hang with the up and comers, and his win over Paulo Thiago showed that he can get the better of journeymen, particularly when he can force his game down their throats. However in 4 out of his last 5 matches Diego's holes have been exposed and punished - in the Penn, Hathaway, Kampmann and Ellenberger bouts his opponents were happy to walk him down, let him charge at them and take free counter punches all day. For all the emotional and physical excuses that supporters and promoters find for Sanchez, these strategies will work against his unchanging style on his best day. Intensity has turned to predictability, and you can set your watch by when Diego is going to charge in with a 2 - 3 - high kick / takedown combination.

Continue reading this post »

Diego Sanchez fought a 3 round war against man of the hour, Jake Ellenberger last night in Omaha, Nebraska, and provided us with what he called a "dogfight". Their meeting won fight of the night honors and after taking a savage beating through 2 and a half rounds Diego eventually mounted some offence when he took Ellenberger's back on the ground and began raining down his trademark ground and pound. While this was a great moment for Sanchez and his many supporters, it does not signify - as many are claiming - that Diego would have gone on to win in a 5 round fight. Diego was lit up on the feet as he ran in with his trademark flurries and many of the moments where Ellenberger counter punched Sanchez could easily have been lifted straight from the BJ Penn fight at UFC 107.

Diego deserves enormous respect, he fought in front of possibly the most hostile crowd in UFC history who booed him at every opportunity, even after he had turned in a performance which was full of heart. Unfortunately he still showed all of the holes in his game that I commented on here. He still runs in with powerless flurries which either end in a predictable shot or a predictable high kick, and he still carries his lead hand down by his waste - SUICIDE for a southpaw. A good southpaw will never get jabbed, Diego seems to eat them non-stop. Additionally, while Diego has still never been knocked out, his chin is rapidly declining; the shots Ellenberger clipped him with throughout the bout made him stumble, roll his eyes or drop to his knees, while nothing that Sanchez threw on the feet even fazed Ellenberger.

Where then is Diego's place in the division? Clearly he is still tough enough to hang with the up and comers, and his win over Paulo Thiago showed that he can get the better of journeymen, particularly when he can force his game down their throats. However in 4 out of his last 5 matches Diego's holes have been exposed and punished - in the Penn, Hathaway, Kampmann and Ellenberger bouts his opponents were happy to walk him down, let him charge at them and take free counter punches all day. For all the emotional and physical excuses that supporters and promoters find for Sanchez, these strategies will work against his unchanging style on his best day. Intensity has turned to predictability, and you can set your watch by when Diego is going to charge in with a 2 - 3 - high kick / takedown combination.

Continue reading this post »

Hey folks, my newest piece at HeadKickLegend.com. If you like it, please rec - I would love to write on BloodyElbow's front page! https://twitter.com/#!/JackSlackMMA

In the sport of mixed martial arts we are constantly told that combatants are ever evolving, and in many cases this is far from true as grapplers continue to throw looping, straight armed swings at each other until one succumbs. In the case of Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson however, evolution has been a real process through his career and is recently costing him fights and fans. Beginning as a man obsessed with picking up his opponent and slamming him to the mat as many times as possible, Quinton then evolved a ground game like few others once he had slammed his opponents - led by brutal knees and elbows to the body, on top of this he added a dirty boxing game, then a devastating boxing skill set. Unfortunately in recent years, every single one of these abilities has decayed away from his game plan except for his boxing, and it is becoming tedious to watch, and predictable to fight against.

Since Quinton burst onto the major MMA scene against Kazushi Sakuraba in PRIDE FC he has attracted unparalleled media attention. An engaging personality with a self deprecating sense of humor, Rampage made no promises to grind out a win but simply came to put on a show. In his losing effort against the Sakuraba, Jackson slammed the Japanese legend from above the top rope to the mat multiple times before succumbing to the Gracie Hunter's superior submission game, but he had already found a fan following in this performance. Quinton followed this moral victory up with several wins on the PRIDE promotion's undercard against less than stellar fighters, before being matched against the declining but still frightening knockout artist, Igor Vovchanchyn. Vovchanchyn is a legend of the early era of MMA and despite being built for middleweight, spent the majority of his career fighting heavyweights and still having the power to knock them out while going backwards. In this match Quinton used his trademark slams, interspersed with great clinch work and a brutal body attack on the ground to stop the Ice Cold Ukrainian. Though the match provided some fantastic slams, it was Quinton's ground and pound that really took it's toll on Vovchanchyn.

Quinton's defining performances in PRIDE came against the powerful wrestler, Kevin Randleman, and the UFC representative in the PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix, Chuck Liddell. Randleman was supposed to be a far superior wrestler, but Rampage stuffed his shots and from the clinch brutalized his opponent with punches and knees, knocking him down with a body shot and finishing him, once again, with his brutal ground and pound. Against Liddell, Quinton exposed the Ice Man's inability to deal with well rounded fighters (having spent the past few years fighting almost exclusively grapplers), Quinton mixed in big punches on the feet to make Liddell raise his hands, thwarting the Ice Man's legendary takedown defence. Once again this fight was stopped by a brutal and relentless ground assault as Quinton bored the Ice Man down with knees and elbows to the body before Liddell's corner conceded defeat. 4 years later, when he came to the UFC, Jackson was nowhere near the dynamic all-arounder that he had been in his PRIDE hayday, relying almost entirely on punching and punching alone.

Continue reading this post »

In the sport of mixed martial arts we are constantly told that combatants are ever evolving, and in many cases this is far from true as grapplers continue to throw looping, straight armed swings at each other until one succumbs. In the case of Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson however, evolution has been a real process through his career and is recently costing him fights and fans. Beginning as a man obsessed with picking up his opponent and slamming him to the mat as many times as possible, Quinton then evolved a ground game like few others once he had slammed his opponents - led by brutal knees and elbows to the body, on top of this he added a dirty boxing game, then a devastating boxing skill set. Unfortunately in recent years, every single one of these abilities has decayed away from his game plan except for his boxing, and it is becoming tedious to watch, and predictable to fight against.

Since Quinton burst onto the major MMA scene against Kazushi Sakuraba in PRIDE FC he has attracted unparalleled media attention. An engaging personality with a self deprecating sense of humor, Rampage made no promises to grind out a win but simply came to put on a show. In his losing effort against the Sakuraba, Jackson slammed the Japanese legend from above the top rope to the mat multiple times before succumbing to the Gracie Hunter's superior submission game, but he had already found a fan following in this performance. Quinton followed this moral victory up with several wins on the PRIDE promotion's undercard against less than stellar fighters, before being matched against the declining but still frightening knockout artist, Igor Vovchanchyn. Vovchanchyn is a legend of the early era of MMA and despite being built for middleweight, spent the majority of his career fighting heavyweights and still having the power to knock them out while going backwards. In this match Quinton used his trademark slams, interspersed with great clinch work and a brutal body attack on the ground to stop the Ice Cold Ukrainian. Though the match provided some fantastic slams, it was Quinton's ground and pound that really took it's toll on Vovchanchyn.

Quinton's defining performances in PRIDE came against the powerful wrestler, Kevin Randleman, and the UFC representative in the PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix, Chuck Liddell. Randleman was supposed to be a far superior wrestler, but Rampage stuffed his shots and from the clinch brutalized his opponent with punches and knees, knocking him down with a body shot and finishing him, once again, with his brutal ground and pound. Against Liddell, Quinton exposed the Ice Man's inability to deal with well rounded fighters (having spent the past few years fighting almost exclusively grapplers), Quinton mixed in big punches on the feet to make Liddell raise his hands, thwarting the Ice Man's legendary takedown defence. Once again this fight was stopped by a brutal and relentless ground assault as Quinton bored the Ice Man down with knees and elbows to the body before Liddell's corner conceded defeat. 4 years later, when he came to the UFC, Jackson was nowhere near the dynamic all-arounder that he had been in his PRIDE hayday, relying almost entirely on punching and punching alone.

Continue reading this post »

Hey guys, my newest post at Headkicklegend.com. It continues there after the jump - please check it out, it's all part of SBNation and the nice folks there deserve your hits!

Stefan Struve is an exciting prospect in the heavyweight division, in many ways reminiscent of a young Alistair Overeem; Struve is gangly and lacks bulk, his record is hit and miss but he's fought some great fighters, he's always exciting, and despite constantly being credited as a kickboxer it is his submission skills that brings home the bacon when he is inevitably getting beaten up on the feet. Just as Alistair Overeem began competing with the best in the world under the PRIDE FC banner at the age of nineteen, Struve was thrown in against Junior Dos Santos (who was coming off a knockout over a top ten heavyweight at the time) in his UFC debut at the tender age of twenty years old. His career still very much in it's infancy, Struve has plenty of time to turn himself into a consistent winning machine as Overeem has, the question is how many hard shots he will eat along the way.

Just as many other kickboxers have before him, Struve has a misplaced confidence in his stand up. It seems as though he believes that the mere fact that he has competed as a professional kickboxer will win him the striking portion of a match - and this same overconfidence has cost him greatly against Junior Dos Santos, Roy Nelson and Travis Browne.

Struve's terrific ground game is not in doubt, his sweep of Sean McCorkle, a powerful top player, and his escape from Pat Barry's side control right into a triangle choke was a thing of beauty. The Dutchman's long frame enables him to sneak in chokes with his arms and legs easier than most fighters, particularly at heavyweight where a great guard game is a rare commodity. This is not to say that Struve's ground excellence is entirely a result of his frame, to say that would be to grossly under-appreciate his technique and timing. His basic hip bump sweep on Sean McCorkle, a powerful top player, completely turned the tide of their match and led to a ground and pound TKO for Struve. It is rare that you see such a basic technique used to such effect against a fighter with the size and experience of McCorkle. Despite his status as a "Dutch Kickboxer", 15 of Struve's 22 wins have come by way of submission while only 5 have come by knockout.

The true hole in Struve's game and what is stopping him from achieving greatness is his refusing to fight as tall on the feet as he does on the ground. Stefan Struve is not a small target, and while he possesses the joint longest reach in the UFC, he consistently fails to use it. A drought of strong jabs is not the only ailment in Struve's striking though; he over-commits when he gets any attack going. Just look at Jon Jones - he is NOT a great striker - but he uses his reach in a way that he can attempt almost any striking technique and rarely be punished for it. Jones uses push kicks to the legs (similar to those Condit used to stifle Hardy and Diaz), biting low kicks to the inside and outside of the thigh, and long straight punches from range to keep his opponents off of him, while moving backwards much of the time.

Struve's desire to constantly walk in is not the way a man with an 84 inch reach should fight, he smothers his punches and exposes himself. In the moments of offence he found against McCorkle on the feet, he backed the stockier man against the cage with a hard straight right, then ran in on top of him, exposing his hips to a massive takedown - when he should have stayed back at range so as not to muffle his punches or lose his reach advantage and looked to land another long right hand or jab. His desire to keep moving his feet forward left him right on top of McCorkle for the easiest takedown of McCorkle's life from a position where he should have been in trouble.

Continue reading this post "

Stefan Struve is an exciting prospect in the heavyweight division, in many ways reminiscent of a young Alistair Overeem; Struve is gangly and lacks bulk, his record is hit and miss but he's fought some great fighters, he's always exciting, and despite constantly being credited as a kickboxer it is his submission skills that bring home the bacon when he is inevitably getting beaten up on the feet. Just as Alistair Overeem began competing with the best in the world under the PRIDE FC banner at the age of nineteen, Struve was thrown in against Junior Dos Santos (who was coming off a knockout over a top ten heavyweight at the time) in his UFC debut at the tender age of twenty years old. His career still very much in it's infancy, Struve has plenty of time to turn himself into a consistent winning machine as Overeem has, the question is how many hard shots he will eat along the way.

Just as many other kickboxers have before him, Struve has a misplaced confidence in his stand up. It seems as though he believes that the mere fact that he has competed as a professional kickboxer will win him the striking portion of a match - and this same overconfidence has cost him greatly against Junior Dos Santos, Roy Nelson and Travis Browne.

Struve's terrific ground game is not in doubt, his sweep of Sean McCorkle, a powerful top player, and his escape from Pat Barry's side control right into a triangle choke was a thing of beauty. The Dutchman's long frame enables him to sneak in chokes with his arms and legs easier than most fighters, particularly at heavyweight where a great guard game is a rare commodity. This is not to say that Struve's ground excellence is entirely a result of his frame, to say that would be to grossly under-appreciate his technique and timing. His basic hip bump sweep on Sean McCorkle, a powerful top player, completely turned the tide of their match and led to a ground and pound TKO for Struve. It is rare that you see such a basic technique used to such effect against a fighter with the size and experience of McCorkle. Despite his status as a "Dutch Kickboxer", 15 of Struve's 22 wins have come by way of submission while only 5 have come by knockout.

The true hole in Struve's game and what is stopping him from achieving greatness is his refusing to fight as tall on the feet as he does on the ground. Stefan Struve is not a small target, and while he possesses the joint longest reach in the UFC, he consistently fails to use it. A drought of strong jabs is not the only ailment in Struve's striking though; he over-commits when he gets any attack going. Just look at Jon Jones - he is NOT a great striker - but he uses his reach in a way that he can attempt almost any striking technique and rarely be punished for it. Jones uses push kicks to the legs (similar to those Condit used to stifle Hardy and Diaz), biting low kicks to the inside and outside of the thigh, and long straight punches from range to keep his opponents off of him, while moving backwards much of the time.

Struve's desire to constantly walk in is not the way a man with an 84 inch reach should fight, he smothers his punches and exposes himself. In the moments of offence he found against McCorkle on the feet, he backed the stockier man against the cage with a hard straight right, then ran in on top of him, exposing his hips to a massive takedown - when he should have stayed back at range so as not to muffle his punches or lose his reach advantage and looked to land another long right hand or jab. His desire to keep moving his feet forward left him right on top of McCorkle for the easiest takedown of McCorkle's life from a position where he should have been in trouble.

Continue reading this post »

Just my newest piece from HeadKickLegend.com. If you like it, please go over to HKL and check it out!
Cheers,

Jack

Diego Sanchez will forever be remembered as one of the most exciting fighters in early Zuffa years of the UFC, his mix of incredible cardio and borderline fool-hardy grit ensure that almost all of his fights have been a spectacle to behold. Of late though, Sanchez is coming off of two hard losses to John Hathaway and BJ Penn, a journeyman quality win in Paulo Thiago, and an extremely questionable victory over Martin Kampmann which exposed more holes in his game than it did return him to form. So what happened to the Diego Sanchez that swarmed all over Nick Diaz and won our hearts on the Ultimate Fighter with his bizarre personality and real world fighting skills? Diego Sanchez struggles with distance, and it has been picked up on and exploited by three of his last four opponents. Is Jake Ellenberger the kind of fighter to do the same? Probably not, but he has more than enough tools to make Sanchez struggle in other ways.

A quick look through Diego Sanchez's successful fights reveals his modus operandi; the man is an animal, constantly moving forward and swarming on opponents with punches until he gets them to the mat where his effective ground and pound and slick Jiu Jitsu can be utilized. One of Diego's best matches was his defeat of Nick Diaz, in which he would throw some big punches then literally dive at the much taller man's legs. Once he got Diaz to the mat Diego was relentless, stacking Diaz up in guard and dropping from his feet back to his knees with huge elbows. While Diaz was never in danger of being stopped, it is certainly the most ineffectual we have seen his guard look.

However against BJ Penn, Diego Sanchez shot 27 takedowns, succeeded in none, and was pounded on the feet constantly. Now BJ Penn is a marvelous athlete, but to write off his natural abilities as the reason he could do this to Sanchez when other great athletes like Nick Diaz couldn't is just downright moronic. BJ fought the perfect gameplan against Sanchez which from the get go seemed to be about pressure. Throughout the fight BJ Penn backed Diego on to the cage, but instead of leading waited for Diego to charge him. When Diego did charge, BJ would take one or two shuffles back to avoid the first attack, slip the second and counter - and it worked. Every time.

The reason this happened is because Diego relies on swarming opponents to get the takedown, every one of his previous defeated opponents had been distracted by his rushes with his hands and had left their hips exposed for him to shoot on. The thing is that Diego can hit with power, when he's standing still and swinging, but becomes a rigid arm-puncher when he attempts to strike at long distance. Just look at how he pushes his punches at Penn, it's almost Forrest Griffin-esque, and certainly nothing for Penn to worry about. Additionally his straights are slow and predictable - in his fight with BJ, Diego threw the same combination multiple times in every one of the five rounds. BJ continued to either counter it, or move out of the way with ease.

Continue reading this post »

Diego Sanchez will forever be remembered as one of the most exciting fighters in early Zuffa years of the UFC, his mix of incredible cardio and borderline fool-hardy grit ensure that almost all of his fights have been a spectacle to behold. Of late though, Sanchez is coming off of two hard losses to John Hathaway and BJ Penn, a journeyman quality win in Paulo Thiago, and an extremely questionable victory over Martin Kampmann which exposed more holes in his game than it did return him to form. So what happened to the Diego Sanchez that swarmed all over Nick Diaz and won our hearts on the Ultimate Fighter with his bizarre personality and real world fighting skills? Diego Sanchez struggles with distance, and it has been picked up on and exploited by three of his last four opponents. Is Jake Ellenberger the kind of fighter to do the same? Probably not, but he has more than enough tools to make Sanchez struggle in other ways.

A quick look through Diego Sanchez's successful fights reveals his modus operandi; the man is an animal, constantly moving forward and swarming on opponents with punches until he gets them to the mat where his effective ground and pound and slick Jiu Jitsu can be utilized. One of Diego's best matches was his defeat of Nick Diaz, in which he would throw some big punches then literally dive at the much taller man's legs. Once he got Diaz to the mat Diego was relentless, stacking Diaz up in guard and dropping from his feet back to his knees with huge elbows. While Diaz was never in danger of being stopped, it is certainly the most ineffectual we have seen his guard look.

However against BJ Penn, Diego Sanchez shot 27 takedowns, succeeded in none, and was pounded on the feet constantly. Now BJ Penn is a marvelous athlete, but to write off his natural abilities as the reason he could do this to Sanchez when other great athletes like Nick Diaz couldn't is just downright moronic. BJ fought the perfect gameplan against Sanchez which from the get go seemed to be about pressure. Throughout the fight BJ Penn backed Diego on to the cage, but instead of leading waited for Diego to charge him. When Diego did charge, BJ would take one or two shuffles back to avoid the first attack, slip the second and counter - and it worked. Every time.

The reason this happened is because Diego relies on swarming opponents to get the takedown, every one of his previous defeated opponents had been distracted by his rushes with his hands and had left their hips exposed for him to shoot on. The thing is that Diego can hit with power, when he's standing still and swinging, but becomes a rigid arm-puncher when he attempts to strike at long distance. Just look at how he pushes his punches at Penn, it's almost Forrest Griffin-esque, and certainly nothing for Penn to worry about. Additionally his straights are slow and predictable - in his fight with BJ, Diego threw the same combination multiple times in every one of the five rounds. BJ continued to either counter it, or move out of the way with ease.

Continue reading this post »

It is no secret that Nick Diaz basically kept the Strikeforce brand afloat through the last three years of his career. An exciting volume puncher who brings a unique style, always takes big shots, often gets in to trouble, but finishes the vast majority of his fights. These are all highly desirable qualities in a fighter; consistency and excitement being the greatest marketable assets in a fighter - there's a reason Chuck Liddell was the biggest star in MMA during his 3 year, knockout filled winning streak. What many fans do not realize is the efforts which matchmakers go to to make stars like Diaz a reality for their promotion. Despite the welterweight division being filled to the brim with takedown artists, Nick Diaz has still not fought a decent wrestler in the last half a decade.

The Role of a Match Maker

What many fans fail to understand is that there is a reason match makers such as Joe Silva make such huge amounts of money. A matchmaker's job is to either:

1) Put on a barnburning fight

OR

2) Sell a fighter as a superstar

In every event you will see the staple brawlers tend to the first order of business such as Chris Lytle and Chris Leben, fighters who are unlikely to get a title shot on their ability but that a matchmaker can rely on to put on an exciting fight win, lose or draw. Exciting brawlers can often stay in the major leagues of MMA despite a losing record if they entertain the crowds, and this is excellent because not everyone can be a Georges St. Pierre but still deserve gainful employment.

The second concern of selling a fighter is where Joe Silva, and other matchmakers earn their money. It is hard to sell fights under a brand unless there are stars within that brand that act as a figurehead. Often these will be exciting fighters such as BJ Penn, or fighters who have a following from outside MMA such as Brock Lesnar or Herschel Walker.

Continue reading this post »

It is no secret that Nick Diaz basically kept the Strikeforce brand afloat through the last three years of his career. An exciting volume puncher who brings a unique style, always takes big shots, often gets in to trouble, but finishes the vast majority of his fights. These are all highly desirable qualities in a fighter; consistency and excitement being the greatest marketable assets in a fighter - there's a reason Chuck Liddell was the biggest star in MMA during his 3 year, knockout filled winning streak. What many fans do not realize is the efforts which matchmakers go to to make stars like Diaz a reality for their promotion. Despite the welterweight division being filled to the brim with takedown artists, Nick Diaz has still not fought a decent wrestler in the last half a decade.

The Role of a Match Maker

What many fans fail to understand is that there is a reason match makers such as Joe Silva make such huge amounts of money. A matchmaker's job is to either:

1) Put on a barnburning fight

OR

2) Sell a fighter as a superstar

In every event you will see the staple brawlers tend to the first order of business such as Chris Lytle and Chris Leben, fighters who are unlikely to get a title shot on their ability but that a matchmaker can rely on to put on an exciting fight win, lose or draw. Exciting brawlers can often stay in the major leagues of MMA despite a losing record if they entertain the crowds, and this is excellent because not everyone can be a Georges St. Pierre but still deserve gainful employment.

The second concern of selling a fighter is where Joe Silva, and other matchmakers earn their money. It is hard to sell fights under a brand unless there are stars within that brand that act as a figurehead. Often these will be exciting fighters such as BJ Penn, or fighters who have a following from outside MMA such as Brock Lesnar or Herschel Walker.

Continue reading this post »

Hey folks, sorry it's been a while coming - gifsoup seems to be glitching out every time I attempt to put something into it. The second part of the Southpaw Striking Guide is up at www.fightsgoneby.com and it covers:

-The Corkscrew Lead Uppercut

-The Rear Straight

-The Looping Lead Straight

-The Lean Back Lead Hook

-The Southpaw Jab

http://www.fightsgoneby.com/2012/02/southpaw-striking-guide-part-2-unique.html

Because of the aforementioned gifsoup issues there are some videos in this one as well as gifs, but it's good to get good at analyzing fight film anyway!

As always, all feedback is much appreciated as it's the way I improve my writing!

http://www.fightsgoneby.com/2012/02/southpaw-striking-guide-part-2-unique.html

Cheers,

Jack

Hey folks, it's here! The Southpaw Striking Guide is my commitment to putting together the most comprehensive free material on fighting as or against a southpaw.

With the growing number of southpaws coming to kickboxing, boxing and MMA it is unacceptable that there is such a dearth of material available on the web or in print and www.fightsgoneby.com is committed to changing that.

http://www.fightsgoneby.com/2012/01/southpaw-striking-guide-part-1-advanced.html

Please head over and if you like it:
- Bookmark Fights Gone By
- Recommend Fights Gone By on Facebook, Twitter, Google plus and so on.
- Use our brand new DONATE button to help make my mission to bring the best analysis and instruction on the net for free easier!

As always, all feedback is welcome and encouraged!

Cheers,
Jack Slack

Hey folks, it's here! The Southpaw Striking Guide is my commitment to putting together the most comprehensive free material on fighting as or against a southpaw.

With the growing number of southpaws coming to kickboxing, boxing and MMA it is unacceptable that their is such a dearth of material available on the web or in print and www.fightsgoneby.com is committed to changing that.

http://www.fightsgoneby.com/2012/01/southpaw-striking-guide-part-1-advanced.html

Please head over and if you like it:
- Bookmark Fights Gone By
- Recommend Fights Gone By on Facebook, Twitter, Google plus and so on.
- Use our brand new DONATE button to help make my mission to bring the best analysis and instruction on the net for free easier!

As always, all feedback is welcome and encouraged!

Cheers,
Jack Slack

Hey folks, it's here! The Southpaw Striking Guide is my commitment to putting together the most comprehensive free material on fighting as or against a southpaw.

With the growing number of southpaws coming to kickboxing, boxing and MMA it is unacceptable that their is such a dearth of material available on the web or in print and www.fightsgoneby.com is committed to changing that.

http://www.fightsgoneby.com/2012/01/southpaw-striking-guide-part-1-advanced.html

Please head over and if you like it:
- Bookmark Fights Gone By
- Recommend Fights Gone By on Facebook, Twitter, Google plus and so on.
- Use our brand new DONATE button to help make my mission to bring the best analysis and instruction on the net for free easier!

As always, all feedback is welcome and encouraged!

Cheers,
Jack Slack

Hey folks, it's here! The Southpaw Striking Guide is my commitment to putting together the most comprehensive free material on fighting as or against a southpaw.

With the growing number of southpaws coming to kickboxing, boxing and MMA it is unacceptable that their is such a dearth of material available on the web or in print and www.fightsgoneby.com is committed to changing that.

http://www.fightsgoneby.com/2012/01/southpaw-striking-guide-part-1-advanced.html

Please head over and if you like it:
- Bookmark Fights Gone By
- Recommend Fights Gone By on Facebook, Twitter, Google plus and so on.
- Use our brand new DONATE button to help make my mission to bring the best analysis and instruction on the net for free easier!

As always, all feedback is welcome and encouraged!

Cheers,
Jack Slack

Quick heads up folks, of all the requests I've had of concepts / techniques / fights to be broken down, one of the most popular was how to fight as or against a southpaw.

So on Monday morning I will be uploading the first part of my guide to / for southpaws at:

www.fightsgoneby.com

This first issue will be entitled "Advanced Basics" and will cover:

- The technique of hand fighting

- Stepping outside the lead foot

- Using rear side strikes.

While these are all pretty basic concepts I will be going into them in great depth, with gifs from Giorgio Petrosyan, Nick Diaz, Lyoto Machida, KJ Noons and Alistair Overeem. I will also be using the writings of Masahiko Tanaka and K. V. Gradapolov to illustrate points.

If that sounds like your sort of thing, make sure to be at www.fightsgoneby.com on Monday!

Cheers,

Jack Slack

@JackSlackMMA

It is no secret around here that I have a great affinity for strikers, particularly those who can make wrestlers think twice about spamming takedown attempts. There is an embarrassment of riches in terms of talented strikers now entering the sport of MMA, simply because of the declining state of kickboxing and the growing purses and exposure of Mixed Martial Arts competition. My fondness of Japanese MMA stems from my fandom in the PRIDE FC days, and my taking up wrestling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Tokyo while over there training my striking, and I have made sure to keep up to date with the current crop of talent working it's way through Shooto in hopes of DREAM FC returning to the form PRIDE FC was on. For the die hard fans of JMMA this list will provide nothing new, but those who are perhaps only familiar with the major U.S. promotions, this will provide an interesting little guide to some of the more entertaining fighters Asia has to offer.

Mamoru "The Fro" Yamaguchi

One of the premier names in the flyweight (125 lbs) division for the last five years, a Shooto champion and one of the most dynamic fighters in Japanese MMA. Mamoru Yamaguchi fights in Thai style shorts and is responsible for more dropped or KOd opponents in Shooto's oversized (5 oz.) gloves than anyone at 125lbs.The first time I saw Yamaguchi fight I realised two things; the first was that the Japanese can grow afros - quite impressive ones at that, and the second was that in the 125 pound division, which is so little heard about due to lack of explosive finishes or big names, KOs can happen. I happened to discover Yamaguchi through his fight in Shooto with Stonnie Dennis, which Yamaguchi finished by establishing the Thai clinch on Dennis' neck, pushing him into the ropes, and knocking him out cold with a beautiful head kick.

Yamaguchi's hands are as fast an furious as you'd expect from a flyweight fighter, and his kicks are heavy, but what is most interesting about Yamaguchi to die hard fans is that he, just as Anderson Silva has done, has negated the majority of his opponent's takedown attempts through mastery of the clinch from a striking perspective. Watch his destruction of Frank Baca as the latter struggles to gain underhooks on the smaller, craftier Yamaguchi.

Much of Yamaguchi's success from a technical perspective is not from his superior fighting at range, but rather in his ability to fight out of the clinch.

Continues at http://www.headkicklegend.com/2012/1/27/2752523/great-and-obscure-strikers-1-mamoru-yamaguchi#

Jack Slack now blogs at his brand new website www.fightsgoneby.com

He can also be found on Twitter @JackSlackMMA

@JackSlackMMA

It is no secret around here that I have a great affinity for strikers, particularly those who can make wrestlers think twice about spamming takedown attempts. There is an embarrassment of riches in terms of talented strikers now entering the sport of MMA, simply because of the declining state of kickboxing and the growing purses and exposure of Mixed Martial Arts competition. My fondness of Japanese MMA stems from my fandom in the PRIDE FC days, and my taking up wrestling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Tokyo while over there training my striking, and I have made sure to keep up to date with the current crop of talent working it's way through Shooto in hopes of DREAM FC returning to the form PRIDE FC was on. For the die hard fans of JMMA this list will provide nothing new, but those who are perhaps only familiar with the major U.S. promotions, this will provide an interesting little guide to some of the more entertaining fighters Asia has to offer.

Mamoru "The Fro" Yamaguchi

One of the premier names in the flyweight (125 lbs) division for the last five years, a Shooto champion and one of the most dynamic fighters in Japanese MMA. Mamoru Yamaguchi fights in Thai style shorts and is responsible for more dropped or KOd opponents in Shooto's oversized (5 oz.) gloves than anyone at 125lbs.The first time I saw Yamaguchi fight I realised two things; the first was that the Japanese can grow afros - quite impressive ones at that, and the second was that in the 125 pound division, which is so little heard about due to lack of explosive finishes or big names, KOs can happen. I happened to discover Yamaguchi through his fight in Shooto with Stonnie Dennis, which Yamaguchi finished by establishing the Thai clinch on Dennis' neck, pushing him into the ropes, and knocking him out cold with a beautiful head kick.

Yamaguchi's hands are as fast an furious as you'd expect from a flyweight fighter, and his kicks are heavy, but what is most interesting about Yamaguchi to die hard fans is that he, just as Anderson Silva has done, has negated the majority of his opponent's takedown attempts through mastery of the clinch from a striking perspective. Watch his destruction of Frank Baca as the latter struggles to gain underhooks on the smaller, craftier Yamaguchi.

Much of Yamaguchi's success from a technical perspective is not from his superior fighting at range, but rather in his ability to fight out of the clinch. The Stonnie Dennis knockout and his dropping of Frank Baca above were both initiated from clinch range. As the Dennis kick shows, Mamoru likes to catch opponent's with their hands down as they disengage from the clinch - a signature technique of Jack Dempsey, referred to in his book "Championship Fighting" as "The Sneaker". If the referee breaks a clinch, it is illegal to strike your opponent and you risk disqualification, but if your opponent disengages, or you push him away from you, it is entirely legal to strike him. In the former case, opponent's often get lazy, as demonstrated here by Kitahara:

Here, in an American promotion (Yamaguchi is one of the few Japanese stars to have success on American soil in recent years), "The Fro" uses a shove from clinch range to push his opponent against the cage. The opponent's hands come down to balance himself (a technique I break down in detail here) and Mamoru demolishes him with a tight left hook.

If you aren't familiar with the work of Mamoru Yamaguchi it is well worth a look. He may not always win, his grappling has cost him before, but his record is sterling, he's fought successfully on American soil and he knocks out much bigger men in a weight class known for it's sparsity of finishes. It is no exaggeration to call him the best technical striker at flyweight, having a 35 fight record and never losing via KO or even to a fighter with less that superb Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. A trawl through his fights on youtube is an excellent way to waste an afternoon.

Jack Slack now blogs at his brand new website www.fightsgoneby.com

He can also be found on Twitter @JackSlackMMA

Hey ladies (and some gents I'm sure),

Am currently reworking my site, so it's a little messy at the moment, but I wanted to advertise my newest post a little. It's basically a reading list for strikers, only the first part mind you - there is plenty more to be said. You might have read all of them but I would love to hear in the comments how you feel about my first choices, and what you would recommend to a young beginner or a veteran striker alike.

http://www.fightsgoneby.com/2012/01/strikers-reading-list-part-1.html

Also, please notice my swanky new domain name www.fightsgoneby.com

Bookmark me and add me on twitter @JackSlackMMA

Cheers,

Jack

Hey folks,

Am currently reworking my site, so it's a little messy at the moment, but I wanted to advertise my newest post a little. It's basically a reading list for strikers, only the first part mind you - there is plenty more to be said. You might have read all of them but I would love to hear in the comments how you feel about my first choices, and what you would recommend to a young beginner or a veteran striker alike.

http://www.fightsgoneby.com/2012/01/strikers-reading-list-part-1.html

Also, please notice my swanky new domain name www.fightsgoneby.com

Bookmark me and add me on twitter @JackSlackMMA

Cheers,

Jack

Hey guys, after the unexpected success of my article on the cross counter I was bombarded with other examples fight fans had seen! Some were simply brilliant so I compiled a short list of my favourites in gif form.

There's a fair few so I'll place the link to it here rather than working out how to embed everything. Hope you guys don't mind. If you think of any more, please say and if you've got a gif, even better!

Cheers, Jack Slack

http://fightsgoneby.blogspot.com/2012/01/cross-counter-2-gif-madness.html

Don't forget to add me on Twitter to know what's happening @JackSlackMMA

From HeadKickLegend - head there to read the full article, including Nogueira, BJ Penn and Jose Aldo.

The Counter Jab is perhaps the most important punch in boxing and therefore in all around striking, it lands cleanly and often, and it is by far the safest counter punch to throw. Supposedly good strikers have been taken apart time and again by lesser strikers who counter jab often and accurately. There are many variations of the counter jab, but by far the most useful are the catch and pitch, and the dipping jab. The catch and pitch jab is a simple matter of using the right palm to catch an incoming jab while firing one's own jab simultaneously. The dipping jab is the act of slipping to the outside of the opponent's jab while simultaneously throwing one's own.

The former technique of catch and pitch is demonstrated here by the great Joe Louis

Notice how Louis initiates his jab immediately upon his opponent's front foot entering punching range. Louis was not a fast mover, and it really showed as most of his opponents spent the early rounds running in and out of range, so it was these kind of well timed pot shots at long range that Louis used to slow them down before stepping into range for his violent hooking and uppercutting combinations. Watch in this gif as he grinds down Mann, a fighter who had begun the fight by attempting to rush Louis. Louis brought Mann under his control with a counter jab every time Mann attempted to fight from long range.

Continue reading this post

Jack Slack blogs at http://fightsgoneby.blogspot.com/

And tweets at @JackSlackMMA

From HeadKickLegend - head there to read the full article, including Nogueira, BJ Penn and Jose Aldo.

The Counter Jab is perhaps the most important punch in boxing and therefore in all around striking, it lands cleanly and often, and it is by far the safest counter punch to throw. Supposedly good strikers have been taken apart time and again by lesser strikers who counter jab often and accurately. There are many variations of the counter jab, but by far the most useful are the catch and pitch, and the dipping jab. The catch and pitch jab is a simple matter of using the right palm to catch an incoming jab while firing one's own jab simultaneously. The dipping jab is the act of slipping to the outside of the opponent's jab while simultaneously throwing one's own.

The former technique of catch and pitch is demonstrated here by the great Joe Louis

Notice how Louis initiates his jab immediately upon his opponent's front foot entering punching range. Louis was not a fast mover, and it really showed as most of his opponents spent the early rounds running in and out of range, so it was these kind of well timed pot shots at long range that Louis used to slow them down before stepping into range for his violent hooking and uppercutting combinations. Watch in this gif as he grinds down Mann, a fighter who had begun the fight by attempting to rush Louis. Louis brought Mann under his control with a counter jab every time Mann attempted to fight from long range.

Continue reading this post

Jack Slack blogs at http://fightsgoneby.blogspot.com/

And tweets at @JackSlackMMA

From HeadKickLegend - head there to read the full article, including Nogueira, BJ Penn and Jose Aldo.

The Counter Jab is perhaps the most important punch in boxing and therefore in all around striking, it lands cleanly and often, and it is by far the safest counter punch to throw. Supposedly good strikers have been taken apart time and again by lesser strikers who counter jab often and accurately. There are many variations of the counter jab, but by far the most useful are the catch and pitch, and the dipping jab. The catch and pitch jab is a simple matter of using the right palm to catch an incoming jab while firing one's own jab simultaneously. The dipping jab is the act of slipping to the outside of the opponent's jab while simultaneously throwing one's own.

The former technique of catch and pitch is demonstrated here by the great Joe Louis

Notice how Louis initiates his jab immediately upon his opponent's front foot entering punching range. Louis was not a fast mover, and it really showed as most of his opponents spent the early rounds running in and out of range, so it was these kind of well timed pot shots at long range that Louis used to slow them down before stepping into range for his violent hooking and uppercutting combinations. Watch in this gif as he grinds down Mann, a fighter who had begun the fight by attempting to rush Louis. Louis brought Mann under his control with a counter jab every time Mann attempted to fight from long range.

Continue reading this post

Jack Slack blogs at http://fightsgoneby.blogspot.com/

And tweets at @JackSlackMMA