So while watching Roy Nelson put his signature belly crucifix on Cro Cop at UFC 138, I started to wonder which other MMA fighters have such a signature, video game-style move. I'm talking about a move that is so unique to the fighter that if somebody else did it, you'd be like, "oh that's (so and so's) move, and you're doing it wrong." A classic example would be the Chuck Liddell overhand right. Lots of people can throw an overhand, but nobody throws it like Chuck, and if they do it's nowhere near as deadly. Note that by "signature move," I don't just mean something that somebody's good at, like "Jose Aldo has good leg kicks" or "Fabricio Werdum has a good triangle." It has to be a move wholly unique to that fighter or a standard move that the fighter does in a completely unique and/or uniquely effective way. The fighter should have hit it multiple times (or hit it once in a very prominent way, such as the Pettis kick), and one that will score MAJOR points if not finish the fight if landed.

Here's a list I came up with:

Roy Nelson-- belly crucifix

Alistair Overeem-- standing guillotine

Fedor-- armbar

CroCop-- left headkick

Jon Jones-- spinning back elbow, lateral drop

Quinton Jackson-- power slam

Dan Henderson-- "H-bomb," or whatever the fuck we're supposed to call it

Roger Gracie-- full mount

Anderson Silva-- the forrest griffin punch, the belfort kick, rich franklin thai clinch

Wanderlei Silva-- soccer kick

Rousimar Palhares-- heel hook

GSP-- superman punch, double leg

Nick Diaz-- 'the swarm'

BJ Penn-- rear naked choke

Matt Hughes-- the Trigg slam

Shinya Aoki-- reverse gogoplata, neck crank from back control, the 'Hirota hammerlock'

Anthony Pettis-- showtime kick

Cody McKenzie-- McKenzietine

Hatsu Hioki-- triangle from mount

Urijah Faber-- spinning back elbow (just kidding)

Ronda Rousey-- armbar

Feel free to add more if anybody can think of them.

This weekend I fought in a grappling tournament where I won the first two matches but was trounced in the finals, losing by RNC after falling way behind on points. Now, normally after this, one would simply take their lumps and go home satisfied by second place. For me, however, I became a bit regretful and depressed over the overwhelming thought that I lost in part by losing the mental game. This manifested itself in my losing 3 scrambles in the final match, the last of which led to the finishing choke. Anyone who's grappled is well familiar with the scramble, that moment when the fight is largely reduced to a battle of wills-- who gets to the spot first, who keeps the more solid base, and who is the most insistent on winning the position. It is in these moments that complex grappling arts can often degenerate into a game of chicken. Who's going to give up first? Who's going to stop pushing, stop fighting for that hook or whatever and just accept that it's not worth it?

For those of you out there who've been in these situations, I wonder what goes through your head. I'm always envious of a lot of wrestlers I see in MMA--- Fitch, Velasquez, and Chad Mendes come to mind-- who will simply not give up on a takedown. Their opponents can sprawl, can get overhooks, underhooks, knee, use the cage, threaten guillotines, but these guys will not stop driving for that takedown. It makes me think of Rocky III, as cheesy as it is, and Apollo's insistent advice for Rocky to recapture that famed "eye of the tiger," that never-back-down killer instinct. I've often heard people talk about the ruthlessness of amateur wrestling rooms, and it is seemingly the spirit developed through this scene that sets so many American fighters apart. I'm just curious about others impressions and experiences on this issue, and maybe things you've done in training to increase your mental toughness and get you better prepared for the heightened intensity of the tournament scene.

Lately we've all seen what seems like an increase in wrestlers dominating fights (or dominating decisions) with takedowns, top control, and basic submission awareness. This has led to some pronouncing the end of our sport as we know it, and a permanent deference to our wrestler overlords. Others point to an earlier era of MMA where wrestlers were similarly thought to be invincible, only to see Maurice Smith, Chuck Liddell, and jiu-jitsu burst that bubble. More likely, both sides are right in some ways and wrong in others. The pessimists are correct that the sport as we know it has changed. MMA grappling has evolved to the point where a high level guy just isn't going to fall into the same old triangle/armbar/kimura submissions, and the top wrestlers now entering MMA are coming in younger, better coached, and better pedigreed than the previous generation. The optimists are correct also in that the high stakes and competitiveness at the top of MMA all but ensures an inevitable innoculation against the wrestlefucking epidemic. Keeping both of these sides in mind, I'd like to look at some actual tactics necessary to defeating the modern MMA wrestler, and some important things to avoid. There are no .gifs in this post, but I've tried to describe moments as much as possible.

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I'm as big an MMA fan as anybody. I have the highest respect for the great skill, technique, and discipline that go into its component martial arts, as my nightly, knee-shredding struggles to master jiu-jitsu and muay thai attest. But as MMA expands further and further into the mainstream, further into the holy legitimacy of a major sport, I feel that one point should not only be made clear, but should be held sacred for all time to come. This sport IS brutal, IS generally unsafe, and victory can ONLY be attained by hurting your opponent more than he can hurt you. Yes, these are skilled, typically humble sportsmen of the highest order. Yes, there are many effective regulations in place that promote fighter safety. Yes, boxing and certainly football are more harmful to an athlete's long-term health. But the single thing that sets MMA apart from those sports, and indeed even from its component martial arts, is the primary aim of one competitor inflicting total pain on the other competitor. To ignore this point, or to somehow attempt to convince outsiders that it is not the goal, is a delusion.

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Like most of you, I'm a big MMA fan. Also like most of you, I'm a big know-it-all. So that being the case, I know that if I was in charge (of anything) I'd be able to do things much better (than anybody). I'll start with Strikefarce. They've put on some good fights, sure, have managed to keep their heads above water, okay, but we all know they can do better. So, here's 7 sure-fire, no-brainer, duh duh duh, ways these less-smart-people-than-me can fix their #2 promotion.

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Yesterday I watched the two fights I hadn't seen from Inside MMA's "Fight of the Year" list, Lozano-Dent and Misaki-Santiago, and one thing became plainly obvious to me-- these fights were made great because they were 5 rounds.  If they had been 3 rounders (and all would have been if they'd been fought in the UFC, Dream, or Strikeforce), they'd be considered little more than mildly interesting 3 round decisions, the type of fight that happens on probably every UFC prelim or undercard and often doesn't even get aired.  Throw in Pettis-Henderson, and you see widely considered epic fights where the first two rounds were actually relatively tame, with all the crazy back and forth action coming late in the fight after both fighters had implemented their gameplans.

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