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UFC 164: Josh Barnett and the Art of Fighting Ugly

During the course of the week, I had been working on an essay about the finer points of infighting, in which I labelled it almost a lost art in boxing. It was for this reason that Josh Barnett’s destruction of Frank Mir on the inside impressed me so mu…

During the course of the week, I had been working on an essay about the finer points of infighting, in which I labelled it almost a lost art in boxing. It was for this reason that Josh Barnett‘s destruction of Frank Mir on the inside impressed me so much.

Through four minutes of grip changes, jamming his head into Mir’s face to create space, and brutal strikes up and down the body, Barnett forced Mir to wilt under fire.

I have said it before and I will say it again, Josh Barnett’s career focus has always been a little off.

His love of pro wrestling and fighting for underdog promotions has kept him out of the spotlight for far too long, and even though many have considered him a top heavyweight for a long time he has wasted a large number of fights meeting friends or people who should never have been fighting him anyway.

The light heavyweight Hidehiko Yoshida, a well past his best Jeff Monson, Gilbert Yvel, Mighty Mo: these are wasted fights and wasted potential.

Even when Barnett tried to meet better fighters as he joined Strikeforce’s impeccable line up for the heavyweight grand prix, he still ended up missing out on elite competition.

In the course of that ill fated grand prix, Barnett met the two most one dimensional fighters in the tournament; Brett Rogers and Sergei Kharitanov. Both men fared about as well as you would expect against Barnett, getting submitted the same way with the same ease.

Barnett finally met Daniel Cormier in May 2012, a full six years after the last truly skilled heavyweight on his record, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and was soundly drubbed.

Coming into his bout with Frank Mir then, Barnett had a lot to prove.

Mir has made a name in recent years by beating legends on the back end of their careers, and if Barnett had lost a step since his days just below PRIDE’s heavyweight trinity, it seemed like Mir would have another finish on his record.

Of course, fights are not affected in any way by rankings or expectations.

Barnett came in and manhandled Frank Mir in exactly the same area which Barnett’s old foe, Daniel Cormier had just months earlier. The difference is that Barnett finished Mir within 5 minutes.

Barnett’s assault was so varied and ferocious that it would be almost impossible to break it down movement to movement without writing a much, much longer article but there were plenty of key concepts on display from both men.

The first thing to notice is that as soon as the two moved into infighting or clinch fighting range, Barnett stayed tight while Mir began swinging both hands at once, his elbows coming far clear of his body. This is very important because while the commentary team and the crowd were impressed by Mir’s punches, they opened Mir up for grips behind his neck and for underhooks.

While Barnett looked to be getting hit more cleanly as he moved Mir to the fence, he did get Mir to the fence and that is where Mir stopped being effective altogether. I say it time and time again but the importance of ring craft is that no-one can generate decent power with their legs straight underneath them and their back to the fence.

Mir continued to swing wide even with his back to the fence and this opened up grips for Barnett or opportunities just to land with shorter strikes like elbows.

The importance of not punching wide in the clinch was amply demonstrated by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira versus Fabricio Werdum. Nogueira, however, had dominant position with Wedum’s back to the fence.

As Nogueira got over-eager to do damage he let his punching arm loop out and Werdum grabbed an underhook on that side, used it to steer himself off of the fence and initiated the fight finishing grappling exchange.

Barnett looked magnificent on the inside as he switched between underhooks and collar ties, left handed and right handed blows, knees to the body and punches to the ribs or head. I don’t rate Barnett highly as a pure striker, but as a thinking fighter he is second to none in the heavyweight division.

Barnett’s constant use of his head to keep Mir standing was also wonderful and he used it to employ the classic (and rarely seen) Jack Johnson uppercut. Far from a traditionally recognized technique, this is simply the name I have given to a variant of uppercut applied masterfully by the first black boxing heavyweight champion of the world, Jack Johnson.

Even though it is the shortest punch in the traditional boxing arsenal, the uppercut lacks power at almost chest to chest range, so Johnson, while wrestling with an opponent, would turn his hips all the way through to the other side and bring his uppercut up almost perpendicular to where it would normally arc.

Here’s a gif of Tim Boetsch using this type of uppercut against Yushin Okami.

Barnett was able to connect a couple of extremely stiff Jack Johnson uppercuts on Mir as Barnett used his head to brace against Mir.

The bout ended off of a series of grip changes and hard shots which culminated in a cross face and underhook being used to bring Mir into line for a hard knee strike. Mir sagged and the fight was called off.

Barnett knows Mir. He trained Ian Freeman for Frank Mir over a decade ago.

Of course Mir isn’t the same fighter, he can strike pretty well now and wrestle better than before, but he is still prone to wilting under pressure.

Mir pulls off a big submission or finish, or he gets ground down. Mir’s style is not to come back while under fire. In his notable comeback against Nogueira, it was Nogueira’s decision to jump a guillotine rather than pound Mir out which gave Mir the chance to come back.

Barnett masterfully avoided grappling with Mir and avoided striking out in the open where Mir might have had something of an edge. Instead Barnett got to the inside, made the fight ugly and put on the finest display of clinch boxing I have seen in quite some time.

Is he one of the best rounded heavyweights in the world?

No. But Josh Barnett can hang with most, and on top of some serious ground and pound and terrifying leg locks, Barnett now seems to have found a more impressive and damaging way to use his wrestling (though it may be a little less crowd pleasing than the multiple suplex).

Pick up Jack’s eBooks Advanced Striking and Elementary Striking from his blog, Fights Gone By.

Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Martin Kampmann vs Carlos Condit: The Dangers of Loading Up

Martin Kampmann and Carlos Condit provided a wonderful display of all-around mixed martial arts skill last night in the main event of UFC Fight Night 27. It was unfortunate that one man had to come up on the losing end of the bout as both showed a seri…

Martin Kampmann, whom I criticized last week as one of the slowest starters in the business, hid his usual wake up period by moving straight to his severely underappreciated wrestling. From the start of the bout he was on Carlos Condit, weighing him down like a bag of cement. Rushing Condit to the fence with a single leg, Condit pummeled in an underhook and looked to escape his hips from the fence on that side.

Kampmann sucked his hips in close to Condit’s and hit an inside trip on the second attempt on the side on which Condit had his underhook.

Condit rose to the occasion and showed once again why he has one of the better guards in MMA. While he didn’t come too close to submitting Kampmann, he did effectively eliminate Kampmann’s chances to land heavy ground-and-pound. And of course most good guard players will tell you that guard retention is most of the game.

Every time Kampmann took a step forward in passing guard Condit would push off the cage with his feet or invert himself and get underneath Kampmann, causing a scramble which ended with Kampmann achieving little. The next time Kampmann looked to be passing guard, Condit pushed away and turned his back, scrambling back to his feet but ultimately being pulled back down and having back control secured upon him.

Condit’s willingness to turn his back to make a scramble is definitely worthy of applause as it’s certainly a brave thing to do against one of the division’s best opportunists. Condit eventually managed to shake free and get to top position though.

Much of the first round was spent wrestling in similar exchanges but Condit began to do a better job of breaking free from Kampmann’s clinch. Every time he did so he would land a few good elbows to the head and make Kampmann regret clinching.

The single leg takedown which Kampmann hit at the end of the first round was absolutely textbook, though. Picking up the leg he ran to the fence and used Condit rebounding from the fence to feed into his running the pipe and dumping Condit on his back.

Kampmann began to have success on the feet with his jab but ultimately became a little one note in his movement as he rushed straight at Condit. Condit sidestepped one such offensive and countered with a thudding right straight which slowed Kampmann a little.

The third round proved, once again, why Team Jackson—Winkeljohn is so successful at the heights of MMA competition, and more importantly the brilliant relationship between the eyes of Mike Winkeljohn and the actions of Carlos Condit.

Between the second and third rounds Mike Winkeljohn pointed out to Condit on film that every time Condit attacked, Kampmann covered with his lead elbow and loaded up his right hand. Winkeljohn implored Condit to fake with his right and instead attack Kampmann’s undefended right side with “Hook, elbow or fall off kick. Lunge, fall off, lunge, fall off.”

We can assume that this refers to the left high kick which Condit caught Georges St. Pierre with as he immediately went about making it land against Kampmann. The real key in turning the fight in the third round seemed to be Condit’s left hook, however, which was noticeably less wide than usual and on the money almost every time.

Condit would flick a jab or fake a right hand and immediately close the door with a left hook or a step out to his right with a left high kick. The high kicks became more effective as the round wore on but none of them had the sort of impact which Condit landed on St. Pierre with. The left hook, however, seemed to paralyze Kampmann.

Usually when Kampmann sees a right hand coming he will raise his left elbow, turn more side on and prepare his own right hand as a counter. Winkeljohn observed that when Kampmann does this (and he does this in pretty much all of his fights, so Condit had plenty of time to prepare) his right side is unguarded.

Of course even when he was loading up, Kampmann’s right hand was never more than a couple of inches from his jaw, but it is more that he was clearly not ready in his attitude or mindset to defend himself. When Kampmann catches a right hand, he instinctively comes back with his own. These kind of pinpoint counters help him easily hurt men like Jake Ellenberger and Diego Sanchez, but against a fighter who has a feinting game and a corner like Condit it can be exploited.

Left hooks and high kicks connected more and more frequently, not just when Kampmann was loading up, but after he had thrown his right hand as well. After battering Kampmann through the third round, Condit almost locked in the rare “Ninja Choke” as Kampmann attempted a takedown, but Kampmann spun and gave up his back to escape.

In the final stanza it was the left hook which once again turned the course of the fight. Condit threw a left high kick, followed by a left middle kick, and a right straight. This instigated an exchange and as Condit closed the door with his left hook he found Kampmann’s unguarded chin again and put Kampmann on wobbly legs.

Gif of the finish here.

Here Kampmann reverted to the flaw I pointed out last week (which he had only shown a few times previous in this fight) as he backed himself onto the cage. Kampmann has nothing from there and wasn’t looking to tie up or take Condit down. Instead he covered up, which is never effective in MMA, and was stopped by Condit’s flurries.

Both men showed enormous improvement in this bout and as I have said it was the type of bout where you’re sad to see one man come out as the loser. Kampmann’s recognition that he would need to wrestle early and often was a brilliant one, but once again it was his standup technique which got him into trouble, this time because of a much higher-level opponent and smaller opening than in his previous bouts.

In just a few days the UFC will be hosting another event headlined by Benson Henderson and Anthony Pettis and I will be back to talk about that shortly after. If you haven’t yet read my preview or my interview with Benson Henderson, please make sure to.

Pick up Jack’s eBooks Advanced Striking and Elementary Striking from his blog, Fights Gone By.

Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 164: Benson Henderson Q&A

The last Q&A I wrote in my Talking Shop series was back in November, which should tell you how rarely I do this, but every now and then I am presented with the chance to ask a few questions of individuals whom I really admire.
This week I was able …

This week I was able to ask some questions of the current UFC Lightweight champion, Benson Henderson, and he was kind enough to offer some replies and insight into his training and mindset.

Jack Slack: When did you decide that you could make a full time career of fighting?

Benson Henderson: I first decided that I could make a career of MMA after I decided to take it seriously and not act like a teenager in some band, but fully commit myself like a professional. Roughly, when I decided to up and move in the middle of the night from Omaha, Neb. to Denver, Colo. for proper training.

JS: Which was your toughest fight? Who was your toughest opponent and have you ever made the mistake of underestimating an opponent?

BH: My toughest opponent, for sure was Donald Cerrone in our first dance. I like to think that I’m a pretty intelligent fighter and haven’t underestimated any of my opponents.

JS: You began training wrestling and Taekwondo when you were quite young—do you feel that you benefited from practicing distinct disciplines before training for MMA competition?

BH: I did start my training in Taekwondo pretty early on and then started wrestling my freshman year in high school. I do think that with my background it has allowed me to keep an open mind to other kinds of training and the variety of disciplines out there.

JS: Your kicking game is obviously very important to your overall performance in the Octagon, yet, at the same time, it is somewhat a-typical in MMA. For instance, you often kick straight out of your stance, or throw several high kicks to set up a low kick (rather than vice versa) and of course the jumping kick off of one leg against Frankie Edgar was like something out of Bloodsport. How much of this is a holdover from your Taekwondo and how much is just personal preference or creativity?

BH: A lot of my kicks are unique to MMA and the fight game in general. I wouldn’t say that it’s on purpose, but more because I’ve had success doing them and using them. I just use them more often. People a lot of times have expectations for combinations, if you can throw something that they don’t expect or throw something in a way that they don’t expect it, it can be pretty successful. I definitely try to blend the traditional with the off-the-wall, though. If your fundamentals are so bad your opponent doesn’t respect you, you won’t have the timing/space to throw your more unique techniques.

JS: We know that you have spent a good deal of time working on your jiu jitsu game. Obviously you competed very successfully in the Arizona State Championship in the GI and news has just recently come out that you intend to enter ADCC (Abu Dhabi Combat Club) this year. Are these simply an aside to keep you sharp or do you hope to pursue competitive grappling more seriously in tandem with your MMA career?

BH: I do enjoy competing in BJJ (Brazilian Jui Jitsu), submission grappling and wrestling tournaments. But it’s more just for the love of the game. I love to compete. I love wrestling. Putting them together makes sense. I feel it definitely helps my MMA game as well.

JS: Your next opponent, Anthony Pettis has to be an exciting match for you as he is the only man to defeat you since way back before you began in the WEC. How does the previous bout affect your motivation and preparation for this bout?

BH: My next opponent being Anthony Pettis and the only man to beat me in the past seven years is motivating. Just not in the way and as much as the media is playing it up to be. I can’t wait to get my hands on him, but I don’t need to because I have the UFC belt around my waist. I was able to man up and move on from the past and that loss, which is the only way I was able to rise to the level that I’m at now.

JS: While the first fight with Pettis took place in a 25ft diameter cage, this one will be taking place in the much larger 30ft diameter Octagon. Do you feel the larger cage favours you or Pettis?

BH: I’m not sure who a larger cage favors more. The WEC cage was smaller and the UFC is quite a bit larger, but ultimately I don’t think either one of us is thinking that the deciding factor in this fight will be the size of the Octagon.

JS: Given that your last three bouts have been title fights, how much opponent specific preparation do you undertake nowadays? How much tape do you and your coaches watch on opponents?

BH: We do a lot of specific preparation while training. Because I’m in the gym year-round training two to three times a day, my training camps are shorter, only five weeks. During the entire five weeks we specifically get ready for one opponent. During the rest of the year is when I just concentrate on myself and improving overall.

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I would like to thank Mr. Henderson for taking the time to answer my questions and I hope that my readers found his answers as interesting as I did.

Don’t forget to check out my latest article on the Pettis – Henderson rematch and the techniques and strategies on display in the first. Benson Henderson defends his lightweight title against Anthony Pettis at UFC 164 on Saturday night.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Benson Henderson vs. Anthony Pettis: The Rivalry, the Moves and the Rematch

In a world where column inches and front page space are thrown at matches like Wanderlei Silva versus Chael Sonnen and media attention is specifically focused on who is not going to fight whom, it is interesting to see that perhaps the most exciting re…

In a world where column inches and front page space are thrown at matches like Wanderlei Silva versus Chael Sonnen and media attention is specifically focused on who is not going to fight whom, it is interesting to see that perhaps the most exciting rematch of the year is being almost overlooked.

Anthony Pettis and Benson Henderson will wage war at UFC 164 for the second time, and if you aren’t excited, allow me to remind you of why you should be.

The first meeting of Pettis and Henderson took place on World Extreme Cagefighting’s final card and, as the headliner, was the last fight to ever take place under the promotion’s banner. It was also widely considered to be the greatest fight which took place under the banner and one of the best in recent MMA history.

Through four rounds of back and forth battling in the clinch, on the ground and on the feet, both men took the lead. Pettis dropped Henderson, Henderson dropped Pettis. Pettis met Henderson grip for grip in his grappling, and Henderson struck admirably with Pettis on the feet. What many fans believe decided the bout, which was largely even entering the fifth round, was the introduction (and so far only notable use) of the now infamous “Showtime Kick.”

This move in itself was so beautiful and out of the ordinary that even in a regional promotion, full of kung fu and tae kwon do representatives, it would raise eyebrows. The fact that it happened in a title fight and the final fight in the WEC‘s history inevitably led to rumors of a fix among those fans who watched from underneath tin foil hats.

Slow motion replay is a wonderful tool for the analyst and the fan alike. We can view the exact moment that Anderson Silva reacted to Chris Weidman’s wild backfist as if it were the left hook that he expected, or the accuracy with which Machida snapped the ball of his right foot underneath Randy Couture’s chin. It does, however, feed the many conspiracy theorists who swarm around combat sports.

Henderson’s touching of the fence with his rear foot as if to perform a super man punch off of it (just as Jose Aldo recently did against Frankie Edgar) before thinking better of it and circling away only to receive the rebounding cage kick which followed, was interpreted by some as a signal and that the result was choreographed. The exact same thing happened when Vitor Belfort caught Luke Rockhold with a wheel kick and when Anderson Silva got knocked out.

Of course, anyone who has watched a few movie fight scenes or a little pro wrestling will know just how bad folks who are paid to fake fights all the time look when faking impacts. The idea that a professional fighter could easily dupe the world, or would willingly take a full impact of this sort for money is just ludicrous.

Until the incredible final round the story of the fight had been in the evenly matched grappling and in Henderson’s kicking game and Pettis‘ counter game.

I have said it a few times now, but Anthony Pettis‘ hands are severely under-rated. He doesn’t move his head around a lot or throw hundreds of jabs a bout, but his movement, strategy and set-ups are excellent. Against Henderson he came out in a wide, heavy stance and seemed to be waiting for Henderson to kick.

When he wasn’t trying to catch Henderson with punches off Henderson’s kicks, Pettis was working to back Henderson to the cage. Pettis‘ ring craft is easily some of the best in MMA, and it is no coincidence that he keeps doing razzle dazzle moves off of the fence as he moves his opponent to the fence so often.

Pettis would pressure or even push kick Henderson to the fence and then wait. This is something you don’t see enough in MMA or even boxing any more. When a fighter is on the ropes or fence, the onus is on him to make his situation better. If the fighter facing the fence rushes the fighter against the fence, the former has sacrificed his dominant position for a hasty bum rush.

What Pettis does so well is fight intelligently even when he gets his opponent to the fence. Something which Pettis has done against many wrestlers is to back them to the fence, then fake a rush, to which the wrestler inevitably responds with a shot at Pettis‘ hips. Pettis would then bring up his knee to counter and look for a knockout.

Pettis would get Henderson to the fence then wait for him to work his way off. One instance came as Henderson tried to superman punch his way away from the fence. Pettis jumped back and countered with a good straight. Counterpunching works best when you are assured aggression from the opponent. At no time is the opponent more likely to commit to an attack than when he feels his back is against the wall.

For Benson Henderson’s part, his success came in his low kicking game. Henderson’s kicking game has long been a staple of his offence, but I feel some were surprised with how effective it was against Pettis, himself a highly touted kicker. Pettis‘ love of moving his feet to evade strikes or remaining flat footed to stand and counter kicks leaves much room for an effective low kicking game.

Every time Henderson punched, Pettis would give ground. Each time Henderson kicked, Pettis would try to stand and counter. Henderson’s successes on the feet came as he moved to punch, Pettis backed up and his trailing lead leg was open for a punting. It is the old Shogun vs. Machida scenario. If a fighter is intent on using movement, one leg will always be the last thing to leave range, and if it is targeted it will rapidly make the runner’s life miserable.

This time around, as Pettis and Henderson rematch at UFC 164, the fight offers just as much promise as the first but with a few differences which up the stakes. Firstly, when their first bout took place, many publications did not even place Pettis and Henderson in the top 10 fighters at lightweight—now they are considered the top fighters in the division. The lightweight division is easily the deepest division in MMA right now. Not only is the UFC stacked with talent but there is also plenty of world-class talent outside the UFC, which most divisions lack.

A second consideration is that, when the two met for the first time they were fighting for a title, but at that point the belt was entirely academic. WEC was closing shop and Pettis vs. Henderson was the last fight on the last card. The two men had places in the UFC, and the belt effectively meant nothing except another phrase for Bruce Buffer to read out when the winner made his Octagon debut.

Pettis also holds the only win over Henderson in his recent career. Henderson has also faced criticism in the media over the close decisions in his last three bouts. If anything is likely to fire up the 155-pound champion it is a chance to avenge his only recent loss and impress in the process.

A final consideration is that the two men might not be able to fight the same way in this bout. The WEC was known for its wickedly fast lighter weight action, and a big part of this might well have been the much smaller cage which they used. Just 25 feet in diameter, the WEC cage is credited with forcing engagements more frequently by some. The 30-foot diameter Octagon is seen by many fans as too large for the lower weightclasses as it absolutely dwarfs anyone under welterweight.

As Pettis‘ offensive ringcraft was so important to the original meeting, it seems like the increase in cage diameter could certainly change the appearance of the bout.

The truly exciting factor about this fight is that the stakes are so much higher. Both men have got the recognition they deserve and now have the chance to amend or enforce the result of the first bout. Pettis has taken Henderson’s belt before, yet Pettis faltered against Clay Guida while Henderson’s star continued to ascend. Pettis is once again the challenger in terms of fighting for the belt, but in considering the result of their previous meeting, one could consider that Henderson has just as much to prove.

Both men have a point to make and a legacy to cement, and I am sure we will all delight in watching their efforts at UFC 164.

Pick up Jack’s ebooks Advanced Striking and Elementary Striking from his blog, Fights Gone By.

Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC Fight Night 27: Martin Kampmann: Slowest Starter in MMA?

Every fighter has flaws. Some are more prominent than others, and some fighters succeed despite their flaws, which seem to outweigh their skills.
Martin Kampmann is one of my favourite fighters in MMA because of his well-rounded game and finishing inst…

Every fighter has flaws. Some are more prominent than others, and some fighters succeed despite their flaws, which seem to outweigh their skills.

Martin Kampmann is one of my favourite fighters in MMA because of his well-rounded game and finishing instincts—which every up-and-coming fighter should be focused on emulating instead of hoping smack talk will earn them big fights.

Kampmann has, however, a reputation for great comebacks, and you don’t get to be known for that and for having great defense at the same time.

Here I will be discussing the flaws in his game, and on Monday, I’ll talk about all the things I love watching him do better than anyone else.

In the days of Joe Frazier’s success at the top levels of boxing’s heavyweight division, one sentiment about him was repeated fight after fight.

“Joe Frazier has never won a first round in his life.”

This is tongue in cheek and obviously untrue, as Frazier has several first-round knockouts on his record, but it’s not a meaningless joke. Like many big punchers, he was always a painfully slow starter.

There has always been a group of men who only really “wake up” when they have taken a few good punches to the face or even been knocked down. Kampmann is perhaps the best example of a slow starter hanging around the upper echelons of MMA competition.

Just look at his last three performances. He was caught cold in each one, twice in the first round. Certainly, he was not fighting slouches, but touted as a skilled technical striker, he was still getting caught by the wild broadsides of Jake Ellenberger.

Ellenberger beat him from pillar to post in the opening round, but after the break, Kampmann found his rhythm almost immediately as he connected a sharp counter right hand that put his opponent on wobbly legs.

Kampmann‘s great redeeming feature is that he is one of the finest opportunists in the division (along with his upcoming opponent at UFC Fight Night 27 on Wednesday, Carlos Condit). If he has an opportunity to finish, he almost always will.

Ellenberger got caught, and Kampmann inevitably put him away, but there were few moments in that bout where you could say the Danish fighter had an edge.

One of the biggest flaws in his game, and one that allows mediocre strikers to put gloves on him, is his awful cage awareness. His movement is smooth as you like as he glides around the cage, but in response to an attack, he backs straight up against the fence.

Against the fence is just a miserable place to be. A fighter can no longer move backward, and his feet are forced close together as his opponent barrels in, which removes all the advantages that being in a stance brings. He is easier to hit and can’t return fire with any power.

The example I always use to demonstrate the effect of being against the cage or ropes is Bas Rutten. He is a beloved fighter but was never a great technician like Maurice Smith. Yet he landed good shots on Smith and many others by push kicking them onto the ropes and diving in with punches as their legs were under them and they were rebounding back at him.

If ever you see a fighter swinging with his back to the fence or ropes, remember that nobody hits as hard with his back to the wall and his feet straight underneath him.

Kampmann and Stefan Struve have to be the worst offenders in the UFC for backing up to the cage, but if anything, Kampmann is worse because he has the skill in his footwork to avoid hitting the fence—just not the cage awareness.

Diego Sanchez, Jake Ellenberger, Thiago Alves and Rick Story each backed Kampmann onto the fence, started swinging and connected cleanly on him. In his most recent bout, as soon as Johny Hendricks lunged toward Kampmann, he ran back against the fence.

His most recent bout demonstrates his slow starting ability. From the start of the fight, he was bouncing on the balls of his feet. Every time he bounced, he came clear up off the mat and sacrificed his ability to move fast in any direction.

Whether he thought he could fight Hendricks like this or, more likely, was trying to wake his legs up and get them working in coordination with his will, I do not know. But the important point to note is that Kampmann was knocked out in that fight because he was bouncing.

Check out this gif to see what I’m talking about.

Kampmann was so far clear off the mat that as he bounced forward he gave himself no time or ability to react as Hendricks lunged in. In competition karate, a competitor learns to time his lunges as his opponent bounces forward, as most karateka bounce in a forward-back rhythm.

Hendricks could have timed Kampmann‘s bounce. More likely, he just lunged when he wanted to, and Kampmann‘s own choice to bounce prevented him from reacting.

Kampmann‘s catch-and-pitch counter game is marvelous. He has a solid jab that is combined with a bounce in (which is rare outside of traditional boxing), and he uses his front kick brilliantly as a counter to aggression.

I will analyze all of these elements in a more positive article next week. His front kick on the jaw of Alves was almost identical to the one that Travis Browne landed on Alistair Overeem at UFC Fight Night 26, which I examined in detail.

All of those positive elements are the reverse side of the coin on a fighter who is so talented but often defeats himself with his own technical and psychological flaws.

Kampmann might be able to light up some of the most technical fighters in the UFC on the feet, but he will still struggle with wild brawlers unless he sorts out his cage awareness and defense. He needs to come up with some kind of strategy to avoid punishment while he slowly gets himself into a fight.

Pick up Jack’s eBooks Advanced Striking and Elementary Striking from his blog, Fights Gone By.

Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Matt Brown: A Gift for Violence

Writers don’t have nearly as an important role in the fight game as they used to. Jack Dempsey, for instance, would never have received his shot at the heavyweight title were it not for the efforts of Nat Fleischer, Damon Runyon and other boxing write…

Even though I can have little effect in getting Matt Brown more significant opponents (he is working hard enough at that himself) he has rapidly become one of my favorite fighters to watch. It is the least I can do to thank him for spicing up so many cards (a few of which were a blur of dirge until Brown’s performance) to write a piece advertising his ability to anyone who will listen.

To that end, if you haven’t ever seen a Matt Brown fight, I implore you to stop what you are doing in order to go out and find one right now.

Matt Brown has, and I say this with no desire to characterize him as some kind of animal or monster, a gift for violence. It seems that when Brown finds himself in situations which he cannot have bargained for, it is when he truly excels at doing the sensible thing.

It is very easy for us to say after a fight where two men have swung at each other almost chest to chest and accomplished little “Why didn’t one of them start using elbows or move to a double collar tie and attempt a knee?” What Matt Brown does is excel at performing strategically superior decisions mid-exchange. Whether this is rationalized or, as I implied, simply a gift, I do not know, but it makes him one of the most entertaining and varied fighters in the game and also one of the most dangerous.

If Brown has his man hurt, and that happened very early against Mike Pyle at UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs. Sonnen, he is one of the best finishers in his division by far.

To simplify Brown’s game down to its core elements—he is a brawler with great inside work who excels in not just limiting his opponent’s lateral movement, but actively punishes them for it. Cutting off the ring in MMA is woefully bad for the most part, but Brown has a great grasp on it.

When his opponent moves to his right, he chucks a hard high kick at them which inevitably stands them still as he comes in with his punches, elbows and knees. When his opponent circles towards Brown’s left, he hits them with a long left hook. When they stand still he starts throwing his right, moving his head and gets into the range where he can, again, beat them up with knees and elbows.

It’s simple on paper, but so many fighters actively can’t do it. Any time that a fighter complains about an opponent running—think Henderson vs. Machida or Diaz vs. Condit—it is normally because they are not skilled at cutting their opponent off. Even Nate Quarry vs. Kalib Starnes could have turned out very differently if Quarry had been a skilled ring-cutter, though he did smack Starnes around a good deal anyway.

A look at the last round of Matt Brown’s win over Mike Swick is a perfect example of “The Immortal” at his most basic. Brown extended his arms to smother Swick‘s highly touted hands, then lunged in with a right elbow, ducking his head under and into a clinch afterward.

After eating that elbow Swick spent the remainder of the fight circling away from Brown’s right side to prevent it happening again. As Brown threw a right straight at him, Swick ran out straight into a left hook which knocked him out.

I talk about it all the time, but it cannot be said enough. Punching power is not a one-person act. At any professional level the opponent is going to be moving all the time, not standing still and mimicking a heavy bag. To punch hard it is necessary to have an opponent moving into the punch.

Some folks draw their opponents in straight and cause a collision that way: the counter fighters. Ring cutters herd their opponents into their strikes. A great example is George Foreman. By using his thudding left hook and jab he could ensure his opponent would circle into his thunderous right hook to the body.

A fighter can’t walk through a strike, even a blocked one, so the strike will hold him in place for a combination or flurry.

Here is a video which I made, using George Foreman as a case study, to illustrate cutting off the ring and herding an opponent into punches.

Where George Foreman had a hammering left hook and a right hook to the body, Brown has a left hook and a right high kick. Each of these techniques will knock an opponent out if he runs into them clean and unaware, or hold him in place for a brawl if he blocks them.

If you have the chance, review Brown’s bout with Jordan Mein. At the end of the second round Mein is circling towards Brown’s right, Brown throws a hard right roundhouse kick which Mein blocks, but as Brown lands from the kick he hits a couple of punches, moves to a double collar tie and lands a few good knees as well.

Being a good brawler or able to win exchanges is brilliant, but if you can’t get in position to brawl your skills there are worthless. Matt Brown is one of the best fighters in MMA at turning a match into a fight, and while the talk of a title shot might be a little premature, I find him to be one of the most intelligent fighters out there and one of the fastest to adapt to any given situation.

Just in that Mein bout, as his opponent came out for the second round, he switched, momentarily, to a southpaw stance and ducked his head off to the right. Brown immediately nailed Mein with a right hand lead which set about the move to the ground and the finish. Brown even opted to jump up to his feet against his turtled opponent (something many of my readers will know I love to see fighters do) and finished with elbow strikes to the back of the ribcage. How often do you see a fighter do that?

These split-second decisions might be instinctive or drilled in, but he consistently makes decisions in the middle of a scrap which hold up to strategic scrutiny after the bout. He might not (nay, probably won’t) ever win a title, but Matt Brown has the finest finishing instincts I have seen in anyone in the UFC since Nate Marquardt.

Pick up Jack’s eBooks Advanced Striking and Elementary Striking from his blog, Fights Gone By.

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