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Becoming the Spider: Fights Which Made Anderson Silva: Part 2

Previously, I published the first piece in this two-part series, examining the fights which made Anderson Silva into the fighter that he is. In Part 1, we talked about Silva’s transformation from flatfooted sprawl-and-brawler into dancing counterpunche…

In this installment, we will look at Silva’s greatest moments in the UFC along with some of his craftiest.

Rich Franklin I and II

Against Rich Franklin, Silva showed his greatest trait—a willingness to adapt to the fight. Rather than come out and move, as he had against Chris Leben and had been moving toward doing in most of his fights at this point, Silva came out flatfooted with his hands high and ready to parry Franklin’s awkward strikes.

Silva didn’t dance away or side step as Franklin attacked—rather, he covered up or parried and reached directly for a collar tie on Franklin’s head. When he succeeded in getting his double-collar tie, Silva introduced to the American mainstream what Wanderlei Silva had given the hardcore fans a taste for several years earlier: the beauty of knees to the face from the double-collar tie.

Like the rest of Silva’s game, his clinch benefited from going in a different direction than his Chute Boxe teammates. Where Wanderlei or Mauricio “Shogun” Rua would grab an opponent’s head and yank on it until it was sore, throwing themselves off balance with jumping knees to try and cause some damage, Silva would throw low kicks and body punches from his clinch and use trips to off-balance Franklin.

Silva’s knee strikes to the ribs were also some of the finest I have seen in MMA.

The abruptness and decisiveness of Silva’s dethroning of Franklin—a champion with two successful and routine defenses at the time of their bout—captivated the public. Although Franklin was given a rematch, he lost in an almost identical manner.

It was interesting to see Silva fight to a game plan so perfectly suited, as it turned out, for his opponent—and even more exciting to see the kind of combinations that Silva, traditionally a counterpuncher, could put together on offense.

Patrick Cote

Silva’s bout against Patrick Cote might seem an interesting bout to put on here because almost nothing happened before it ended due to freak injury. Cote was a strange choice for a title fight and seemingly offered little to challenge Silva, but he stumbled onto exposing arguably Silva’s biggest flaw.

Silva is a counter fighter almost exclusively—even his brilliant clinch work against Franklin came off parried or blocked strikes. Hands down or not, Silva fights safe. He likes to see what’s coming and then then deal with it—not run in and risk getting caught with a punch that he didn’t see coming.

This fight turned into a tedious game of cat and mouse, with neither man quite sure which he was. What Silva did learn from it, however, was that he needed weapons to outpoint opponents who would try to make him engage.

When Thales Leites refused to attack Silva, Silva unleashed the long thrust kicks to the knee joint that he is now known for, along with the roundhouse kicks to the calf and other lengthy, noncommittal techniques.

This ability to win fights when the opponent wanted to force him to lead played out well for Silva against Demian Maia. Maia looked for any excuse to pull guard, but of the 60 strikes that Silva threw in the bout, around 40 were long leg strikes. They flustered Maia, while Silva never had to step into danger.

Being an exciting fighter but unafraid of a boring fight because you know you can still win is something that goes underappreciated. Silva could have charged Maia, Leites or Cote at any point, but he could have been knocked out by Cote (not too likely) or dragged to the ground by the mildly dangerous Leites or the incredibly dangerous Maia.

Dan Henderson

By far, Silva’s most impressive victory in many fans’ eyes was his destruction of the durable Dan Henderson. Henderson not only has an iron jaw but has fought a who’s who of names in the MMA world. Henderson was easily the biggest name Silva ever met, and Silva rose to the occasion.

After a first round that saw Henderson hold down The Spider, doing little but covering the champion’s mouth and nose with his hand (now illegal), the fight unfolded on the feet in the second frame. Henderson clipped Silva with some good punches, but as soon as Silva lured Henderson into a brawl, he was able to change level, slip and land his sinister left straight.

The same punch that stunned Leben and turned the rest of the fight into a one-sided beating was the one that did Henderson in.

Henderson—iron jawed but often dropped—stumbled, and the champion followed him to the floor. Finishing with a rear-naked choke, Anderson showed that he could hang with world-class, well-rounded opposition.

Vitor Belfort

Silva’s knockout of Belfort can perhaps be considered the pinnacle of his martial arts career. In Belfort, Silva met a fellow Brazilian with hands just as dangerous as his own.

In other ways, though, the two men were stark opposites. Belfort is an aggressive swarmer who rarely engages in counter fighting or strategy at any deep level, whereas Silva is a counter fighter to the point of inactivity at times.

Silva not only knocked out his foe but did so in the opening minutes of the bout. By pulling out an unorthodox (at the time) strike early on with a front snap kick to the jaw, Silva was able to catch his opponent off guard and get a quick finish over an opponent who would have been more of a threat every moment that he was in the Octagon.

Jack Dempsey was famous for his early finishes, and whenever asked about it, he would reply “the sooner the safer.” Whenever Sugar Ray Robinson was asked if he carried any of his opponents who seemed completely overmatched, he would respond the same way.

If a fighter respects his opponent and thinks him to be a threat, it is often better not to spend time “feeling out” but to hurt them quickly.

Fedor Emelianenko over Tim Sylvia and Jose Aldo over Cub Swanson are two other quick victories over elite competition that resulted from unorthodox techniques and swarming early. Sylvia and Swanson are very good fighters, easily better than most in their respective divisions, but neither would come anywhere near talk of a rematch because they were perceived as being completely blown out.

Silva’s greatest trick was doing the same with Belfort. After an initial bull rush from Belfort, Silva managed to hypnotize him into standing still outside of boxing range but within Silva’s kicking range. As Silva began to move, Belfort braced himself and began picking up his lead leg to check a low kick.

He never saw the front snap kick enter through the blind angle.

Belfort‘s decisive loss to Silva—and use of testosterone replacement therapy—have effectively kept him out of title contention despite crushing Michael Bisping and Luke Rockhold, among others.

The kick was called the greatest knockout in UFC history. It ushered in an era where the front snap kick to the jaw has become a relatively commonplace and effective technique.

From elite strikers such as Lyoto Machida to grapplers who lack grace on the feet such as Dong Hyun Kim and Josh Thomson, the front snap kick has worked its way into the mixed martial arts mainstream and will always be compared with Silva’s knockout of Belfort, when he introduced the world to this unappreciated technique.

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

Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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Becoming the Spider: Fights Which Made Anderson Silva: Part 1

Two of the factors which make Anderson Silva’s career and success so fascinating are that, firstly, he is an incredibly technical fighter—to the point where laymen think he is making it up as he goes along—and, secondly, that he was not alw…

Two of the factors which make Anderson Silva‘s career and success so fascinating are that, firstly, he is an incredibly technical fighter—to the point where laymen think he is making it up as he goes along—and, secondly, that he was not always a very good fighter.

Anderson Silva did not begin turning heads with his first fight and simply build his record from there as Jose Aldo, Fedor Emelianenko and Jon Jones did. Silva is one of those few fighters to have truly looked very average with flashes of brilliance until relatively late into his career. Not only did he turn his career around, but he became one of the best to ever compete in mixed martial arts.

Unlike many of those young fighters who seemed to have it all from the moment they made their entrance into MMA, Silva is a man who has developed—and arguably continues to develop—along the way.

The Anderson Silva who took the centre of the ring in Shooto and the Anderson Silva who darts around the edge of the cage and fights on the counter could be two completely different people.

Let’s look at some of the most significant fights in Anderson’s storied career, including some of his lesser known, perhaps even forgotten, fights.

Hayato Sakurai

Anderson Silva came on to the MMA scene with a bare bones Brazilian Jiu Jitsu game, a decent striking pedigree and the standard Chute Boxe gameplan of ‘go forward, sprawl hard and if you end up on your back, punch upwards.’

Anderson Silva, unlike his stocky stablemate, Wanderlei Silva, never excelled at this come forward and sprawl style—he was gangly and towered over many of his opponents in his early days. Often the stocky wrestlers he was fighting at 170lbs or lighter could change levels quicker and were stronger both technically and physically than him in the wrestling game.

Added to this, Silva was not a brawling swinger like Wanderlei Silva, who intimidated his opponents into poor shots or fear instilled paralysis on the feet. Silva punched too sparingly and kicked too often for this ‘come forward and back up as soon as they shoot’ gameplan to work, and it really showed against Tetsuji Kato.

Two fights after his generous decision win over Kato, however, Silva was in against Hayato Sakurai—considered one of the pound-for-pound best fighters in the world at the time, and one of the first truly rounded fighters in the game.

Sakurai, nicknamed ‘Mach,’ possessed a wicked grappling game, numbing low kicks, a cracking left hook (going forwards and on the retreat) and some of the slickest judo throws in the game. He also owned some nasty knees from the double collar tie (later to become an Anderson Silva trademark). Mach’s career trailed off after PRIDE’s lightweight grand prix, but he was still capable of surprises, notably getting the better of Nick Diaz on the feet in what was supposed to be a fairly easy fight for Diaz.

Sakurai did decently on the feet against Silva, but Silva surprised by besting the Japanese legend-in-the-making on the ground. Off of Sakurai‘s attempted judo trips (which are beautiful when they work) Silva was able to take Mach’s back, lock in a body triangle and pound away with strikes for much of the bout.

Silva picked up a decision win over the reigning Shooto champion, one of the best welterweights in the game and an Abu Dabi Combat Club runner up in the absolute weight division. Silva up to that point had looked a reasonable grappler at best, but surviving with Sakurai in his prime was no small feat, and this bout confirmed to many The Spider’s great potential.

Daiju Takase

If you have visited YouTube and looked for an Anderson Silva highlight at any point in the last four years, you have probably been greeted by one of many “Anderson Silva loses!” videos. His bout with Daiju Takase is perhaps the worst Silva ever looked, and it stemmed from the same issues as all of Silva’s issues with wrestlers did.

Silva is not suited to coming forward with strikes and then trying to react to shots. Silva came forward and sprawled on Takase‘s first few takedown attempts, but in trying to stay ready for Takase‘s shots, Silva could not throw any strikes. Eventually, Silva reacted a little too late and was dragged to the ground, lain on for a while and then submitted with a rare triangle choke from top position.

Silva’s guard had always been decent, but he more often than not used it for striking from the bottom. Following his loss to Takase there are two noticeable trends in Silva’s game. First, his guard becomes a good deal more active and, second, he begins to move along the outside of the ring rather than come forward and take the centre of it.

In Silva’s bout with Jeremy Horn he begins moving a little more, but is instantly taken down and pushed to the ropes with shots often, but he opens his guard and pushes Horn away or forces Horn to stand and then attempts a trip before scrambling up again. These two trends were hugely important to Silva’s career and, had it not been for the failure of his usual stalling on the bottom and coming forward on the feet methods against Takase, we might not have seen Silva develop into the cerebral fighter he is today.

Chris Leben

It was against Chris Leben that many fans in America were introduced to Anderson Silva, as he knocked out a man who was famed for his granite jaw. This bout is significant because, after a brief period in Cage Rage against dangerous bangers such as Lee Murray and Jorge Rivera, Silva seemed to have adapted his style to the cage and learned to move as he never had before.

Watching Silva’s time with Chute Boxe as he came forward in that long deep stance with his hands by his chest, ready to try to sprawl, and knowing how integral movement is to Silva’s game now, it is like watching a man be pressured out of his potential and creativity by his coaches.

Silva’s movement in this fight was sublime—he let Leben come to him and he met Leben with hard punches while on the retreat. Back-stepping punches are something I have examined in many articles before, but they are the heart of becoming a rounded striker. Silva says in his book on striking (definitely worth a read), that anyone can strike coming forward, it is on the retreat that most fighters cannot do anything.

Something which the truly dangerous strikers of MMA will always have over the decent bangers is ability to hit while on the retreat. Igor Vovchanchyn, Fedor Emelianenko, Chuck Liddell and Anderson Silva all hit even harder when their opponents came at them.

It is worth remembering that at the time of Silva’s bout with Chris Leben there were just not that many elite strikers in MMA. Chris Leben was considered a dangerous striker rather than a sloppy brawler at the time and that reflects this shortness of striking talent. Silva’s surgical precision with his punches, pinpoint high kicks (always a hit with fans) and brutal clinch knee to end the bout were enough to propel him to his title shot in just his second bout with the UFC.

Stay tuned for the concluding part of this two-part piece tomorrow.

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

Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Killing the King: Anderson Silva

The Killing the King series is my attempt to shed light on some of the technical flaws and exploitable habits of the consensus best fighters in the world—the champions in each division of the UFC.So far, I have looked at Jon Jones, Junior dos San…

The Killing the King series is my attempt to shed light on some of the technical flaws and exploitable habits of the consensus best fighters in the world—the champions in each division of the UFC.

So far, I have looked at Jon Jones, Junior dos Santos, Benson Henderson, Jose Aldo and Georges St-Pierre in good detail (see hyperlinks), but now I am pushing myself by looking at Anderson Silva with an eye for weaknesses.

Silva has accumulated the longest winning streak in UFC history and has made the most successful title defences as well. He is well-tested and proven. There is no magic fighter type whom he hasn’t fought and will just waltz through him.

When he does eventually lose, there won’t be a Brock Lesnar moment when we reflect, “Oh yeah…I guess he had never fought any passable strikers.”

“The Spider” has faced it all: wrestlers, ground-and-pounders, top controllers and guard pullers. He’s faced blitzers and counterpunchers and southpaws and orthodox fighters. He has gone up against the best opposition in the middleweight division.

If Silva loses as a middleweight, it won’t be because of his adversary’s skill set but because of his game plan.

He has fought plenty of men who could beat him, but none of them have for one reason: The champ threw them off their plans or drew them into his.

Silva’s Counter Game

One thing about Silva is repeated ad nauseum during broadcasts: He is a counter-fighter. This means that he lands meaningful strikes by drawing his opponents out of their guard. Written like that, it seems simple, but counterpunching takes a lot of practice and experience under fire.

While dozens of different striking techniques exist, most fighters only use a few confidently. Silva rarely has to react to diverse strikes from different angles—instead, he faces the same attacks over and over again.

Consider his bout with Stephan Bonnar. Every time “The American Psycho” came in against the cage, he threw a jab, straight right or left hook. Left, right, left—that was easy for Silva to roll with or counter.

At UFC 126, Vitor Belfort just pumped his hands alternately at the target, which was simple for Silva to exploit.

Silva, like any good counterstriker, is also able to draw the punch that he most wants to counter.

Yushin Okami is known for his southpaw jab. At UFC 134, Silva circled toward Okami‘s lead side to draw that jab, and when it came, The Spider slipped and countered with his own. It is a basic boxing counter, but if one catches an opponent stepping in, it is easy to hurt him, especially with small gloves.

Another example of Silva tailoring his movement to his opponent was the way he drew rushes out of Forrest Griffin.

Griffin’s hands were probably among the worst in the light heavyweight division ordinarily, and despite lacking power, he would often lunge in and over-reach to touch his foe. Silva moved straight backward—which is a traditional no-no, but like all things in boxing, it was applicable at the time—drew Griffin into over-reaching and then countered when Griffin’s punch ended with his jaw forward and vulnerable.

Silva and Rolling with Punches

When fighting Silva, opponents struggle to hit him, and when they connect, he takes the power away by rolling with strikes. Rolling with a punch means to move in the same direction in order to reduce its impact.

In MMA, this should be easier than in boxing because almost all MMA fighters attack by alternating their hands—left-right-left or vice versa.

Boxers often double or even triple up the same hand mid-combination, which makes it difficult for the defender to turn side to side as Silva does.

Very few opponents have doubled up punches from one hand against Silva. I am not saying that doubling up would allow a fighter to knock Silva out—there isn’t a simple answer to an iron chin. However, there is a reason why elite boxers rarely roll with every punch as effectively as Silva does; boxers are not as predictable and one-note in their offence.

One of the only times I have seen anyone double up against Silva was in this sparring session at the Wild Card Gym. While some readers will rage at me for using sparring footage, it shows how doubling and tripling up makes the art of rolling punches more difficult.

This wasn’t a particularly skilled boxer, and Silva had been circling around him up to this point, but it is clear that the triple right hand threw The Spider off.

Silva’s Movement

Movement is an integral part of Silva’s game; he rarely meets his opponents head to head but rather circles them and waits for lunges. His success in the Octagon and relative ineffectiveness in the ring reflect this strategy.

The Octagon is almost circular, and the corners are so slight that Silva can backpedal and sidestep for days without ending up against the fence.

Any opponent who wants to beat Silva has to push him up against the fence and prevent him from skipping around the edge of the Octagon.

That’s easier said than done, of course. I looked at the differences between cutting off a cage and a ring in an article about Anthony Pettis and George Foreman, and few UFC fighters have been able to cut off the almost circular cage.

Here’s the rub: When a fighter does succeed in backing up Silva, The Spider fights effectively from the fence too. With his back to the cage, Silva stifled everything that Okami attempted and humiliated Bonnar.

Getting caught up in a clinch battle with Silva isn’t worth it, even along the fence. He is superb from there from a Muay Thai perspective, off-balancing his opponents and landing knees and elbows.

Silva from a Boxing Perspective

What might be worth it, however, is moving Silva to the fence, breaking away with a salvo of strikes and then re-clinching.

Even if that works and the champ has nowhere to run, he can still roll with punches effectively. Bonnar coming in with a one-two-three every time and then attempting a painfully telegraphed back kick was hard to watch.

When Silva isn’t facing comically overmatched opponents, he simply outfights them by counterstriking. When he gets close, he uses a clinch to stall and win points with clinch strikes, and when the bout hits the floor, he locks down his foe in guard and attempts to stall the action there as well.

When you consider Silva as an outside counterpuncher, he appears a little less superhuman. My advice to middleweight contenders: Get the champ to the fence, free one or both hands and work his body and head.

Stopping the Movement

To have any success with Silva trapped against the fence, it is necessary to vary strikes. Doubling up as mentioned would turn him into strikes rather than away from them.

In addition, body work is a far better idea than hunting for his head.

Body work in MMA is overlooked, but a few fighters are excellent at striking the body, particularly against the fence and even while giving away a Silva old favourite: the double-collar tie.

Nick Diaz, for instance, has always used his forehead wonderfully to pin an opponent and unload with body shots. Fabio Maldonado is a limited fighter but is sublime in this one position.

Body shots against Silva make a lot of sense. He relies on movement, drops his hands to draw head strikes to counter them and rolls with most punches that graze his head.

It is much harder to take power off body strikes and can be difficult to counter them, which would be almost impossible when pressed against the fence. Consistent harassment of Silva’s body would slow him down and limit his footwork.

The Importance of the Takedown

While the game plan of getting Silva to the fence, breaking from clinches to unload on the body and re-clinching is strategically sound, it is unlikely to be done by any of the strikers in the middleweight division.

Every 185-pound striker seems to fall short when his fighting IQ is tested, which separates The Spider from the pack.

Chael Sonnen was able to catch Silva with strikes in their first bout because the champion squared up to stifle expected takedown attempts.

When Silva is avoiding punches, he tends to stand far more bladed and narrow—as he did against Griffin, presenting less of a target. The threat of the takedown against Sonnen and the guard pull against Demian Maia made him square up and also more hittable.

Unfortunately, Sonnen tends to flail with inside low kicks and loose punches before attempting to clinch. In their rematch, he waded after Silva, leading with his face and eating a good counterpunch before attempting a terrible spinning backfist and being finished when he hit the ground.

The rematch may have been a disaster for Sonnen, but we can learn from the first bout. Threatening the shot can make Silva square up and lower his hands, which in turn makes him vulnerable to strikes.

An opponent can combine the right straight or overhand with the action of changing level for a shot, as Sonnen did to drop Silva. Or an adversary may mix the left hook with a return to upright stance after a feinted shot—a la Kevin Randleman against Mirko Filipovic.

These techniques can be far more dangerous against a good sprawl-and-brawler than combinations and spinning attacks.

Conclusions

Ultimately, the case with Silva is not dissimilar to the case of dos Santos when he was looking unbeatable as the heavyweight champion. Both men are strikers with perceived grappling weaknesses. As with dos Santos, even an elite wrestler isn’t going to take down Silva at will.

What a wrestler can do, however, is to use unsuccessful shots to drain Silva’s endurance and then connect with strikes, as Cain Velasquez did to dos Santos. Dirty boxing along the fence in the style of Randy Couture, Velasquez or Daniel Cormier would also wear on The Spider.

The problem is that so many of Silva’s opponents think they have to take the fight to the floor, and when they fail in their first attempt, they look lost. They regroup for half a round while getting shown up and then attempt a wild shot or charge in swinging.

The result? A Silva highlight-reel knockout.

Allowing the champ to move is to allow him to dictate where the fight takes place. Against a quality opponent, he will always choose to fight in the middle of the cage, where he has acres of room to roam.

Pressuring Silva against the fence—by footwork or by clinch work—is the only way to take away his movement early on. Furthermore, testing Silva’s cardio with body work and clinches seems to be the best way to slow his movement later on.

This, of course, involves not getting beaten up in the clinch; The Spider understands the importance of bodywork from the clinch better than anyone in his weight class.

At this point in his career, any losses will have more to do with time catching up to him than opponents figuring him out, but the two methods which are guaranteed to end badly are shooting wildly or lunging in swinging.

I have no idea what kind of threat Chris Weidman can offer with just nine fights and a year layoff, but he has looked decent at following game plans and adapting mid-bout. These traits distinguish him from most of Silva’s other challengers, but he faces an enormous step-up in competition at UFC 162.

Stay tuned for my favourite Silva techniques and moments.

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

Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Slack Notes: Anthony Pettis, George Foreman and Offensive Ring Craft

Anthony Pettis, George Foreman and Mike Tyson share a common trait—they are very good at getting their opponent along the edge of the ring and they perform their best work from there.Ring craft is absolutely the most important element of the game…

Anthony Pettis, George Foreman and Mike Tyson share a common trait—they are very good at getting their opponent along the edge of the ring and they perform their best work from there.

Ring craft is absolutely the most important element of the game between two skilled combatants. A fighter with a lesser punch or slower movement can make up for it with good ring placement, while a fighter who has an advantage in these areas already can make a fight look like a complete mismatch if he uses good ring craft to get ahead.

There is a reason that being “on the ropes” or “in a corner” are phrases with negative connotations for the party involved—because those are terrible positions to fight from.

Ringcraft, like almost every element of the fight game, can be considered from an offensive and defensive perspective (though the best are aware of both elements at all times). Defensive ring craft is the ability to stay off of the ropes/fence, the ability to turn an opponent and the ability to reverse positions if cornered.

Offensive ringcraft, the focus of this article, deals with the art of cutting off the ring and the attacking options which are made available both while attempting this and once one succeeds at it. It is, of course, impossible for me to come close to doing justice to this in 1500 words, but I hope to at least illuminate a little and entertain.

Today we will cover:

– Cutting off the Ring

– Herding and Blocking with Strikes

– The Ring vs The Cage

– Examples of Cutting off the Cage/Ring

Cutting off the Ring

Cutting off the ring is simple in theory: move in the same direction to meet the opponent when he attempts to move laterally. The natural instinct when an opponent begins circling is to pivot and face him. This, however, just re-establishes the fighting distance between the two fighters but along a different line.

If the objective was to get the opponent to the ropes or cage (and for the aggressive puncher it should be) by turning to follow the opponent’s movement, you have just allowed him to take the fight away from where you wanted it. The art of cutting off the ring is getting into position to ‘cut off’ the opponent’s movement before he completes it.

A good example of a fighter who cut off the ring to implement his power punching game along the ropes is George Foreman. Foreman would come forward with both hands open and ready to parry straight blows, then step to meet his opponent and move them into a corner.

The ropes are a terrible position to fight from because when a fighter is pushed against them, his stance naturally collapses and his feet move underneath him. Here he has no base from which to punch and is trapped in front of an opponent who is still in a strong hitting base.

Herding and Blocking with Strikes

To prevent an opponent from simply circling out, it is necessary to meet him with strikes. The easiest way in which this can be accomplished is with the right hook or left hook. If an opponent circles out toward the ring cutter’s left, he should meet them with a left hook. Just the same, if the opponent circles to the ring cutter’s right, he should meet them with a right hook.

It is hard for an opponent to block the force of a strike if he is circling into it. Moreover, by circling into a strike, the opponent shaves split-seconds off in which he could react to the height of the blow—be it a hook to the body or head.

Most importantly whether the hook lands on the opponent’s ribs, jaw or arms the opponent is not going to be able to move through it. No one circles so well that they can move through flesh and bone. Meeting a circling opponent with a strike will prevent them from moving away and pin them in place for a barrage.

Notice above how George Foreman walks down Ken Norton and uses the wide right to the rib cage to hold Norton in place along the ropes before beginning to unload.

Herding the opponent into strikes is a more assertive method of meeting the opponents circling with punches. By allowing a larger space on one side it is possible to convince the opponent to move in that direction then jump on them with a strike. It often involves reaching to connect though.

Roy Nelson will often pressure his opponent to the fence, then begin moving into the fence on their left side, encouraging the opponent to move into the space around his dangerous right hand.

Anthony Pettis, whom I will examine in great detail nearer his upcoming fight, will often pressure his opponent to the fence, then attempt a higher risk maneuver because his opponent cannot retreat but can only move left or right. His jumping back kick against Clay Guida, his cage spring knee against Donald Cerrone and his “Showtime kick” against Benson Henderson are all examples of this rushing an opponent as they are either against the fence or attempting to move along it.

The Ring vs The Cage

I have spoken about the importance of the different fighting areas before in my examination of fighters who rely on movement to avoid takedowns such as Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida. In a ring it is simply so much easier to move an opponent into a corner.

The corners of the Octagon, or even a hexagonal cage, are much less sharp than in a four-sided ring, and therefore much harder to get stuck in. Where a fighter who is cornered in a ring will have to move into one of his opponent’s hands to get out, a fighter in a cage has a much smaller corner to escape from and, unless his opponent is right on top of him, can usually run out unharmed.

The key in the cage seems to be to move towards a wall and a clinch, then to break but to keep the opponent along the fence. This is the strategy which has worked for individuals such as Nelson and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and seems a sound strategy.

Pettis will often push kick his opponent towards the fence, then allow them distance so that they rush him or shoot. He almost ruined Shane Roller’s night with one such knee attempt as Roller ducked in off of the fence. Benson Henderson also ate a nice counter punch as he attempted to superman punch his way off of the cage.

In a boxing ring one may lean back on the ropes and spring off them as Roy Jones and Muhammad Ali famously did, but in the cage, when a fighter is pushed to the fence, he must often spread his feet apart to make a wide base so that his opponent cannot simply scoop his legs up.

In spreading their base, the fighter on the wall reduces his punching power even further than if he stood upright with his feet in line.

Examples of Cutting off the Cage

Ultimately, this article is simply a collection of thoughts which I had while on a flight home from holiday, but I would like to finish with some specific examples of how make-or-break cutting off the cage can be to an offensive fighter.

Nick Diaz and his younger brother Nate are overwhelming fighters with incredible body work and great combinations, but until their opponents are hurt or tired and standing right in front of them, they have terrible trouble keeping on top of their man. Just watch Nick Diaz vs Carlos Condit or Georges St. Pierre, or Nate Diaz vs Josh Thomson or Benson Henderson.

Watch how both Diaz brothers struggle if their opponent has the good sense to keep circling away from them rather than covering up and walking backwards to the fence.

To see some superb ringcraft in action in the cage, check out Anthony Pettis‘ wonderful work against Donald Cerrone. When he was on the outside, Pettis was well away from Cerrone‘s mule like kicks, but when he did step in, Pettis was all over Cerrone like eczema. Physically pushing Cerrone back to prevent the taller man from kicking, Pettis moved Cerrone to the fence before springing off it with a spectacular knee strike.

To watch a great battle of wits between dancing master and bullying ring-cutter in the golden days of boxing, have a look at what footage exists of Willie Pep versus Sandy Saddler. Better yet, take a look at Muhammad Ali versus George Foreman—we all know that Ali pulled the infamous rope-a-dope and upset the terrifying giant, but Foreman had to get Ali to the ropes first and Foreman was very, very good at that.

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

Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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UFC 162 Chris Weidman: Rushed Potential and the Importance of Experience

Chris Weidman is as good a prospect as we have ever seen in MMA and has shown numerous traits which are not commonplace in fighters with three or four times as many fights on their record.The problem with Weidman’s upcoming title fight with Anderson …

Chris Weidman is as good a prospect as we have ever seen in MMA and has shown numerous traits which are not commonplace in fighters with three or four times as many fights on their record.

The problem with Weidman’s upcoming title fight with Anderson Silva is that while Weidman is an interesting matchup for the great middleweight champion on paper, this bout at this particular time requires us to suspend our knowledge of his record of just nine fights.

Make no mistake, Weidman’s potential is very real, but with so few fights, his development has been rushed in order to give Silva a new opponent.

My intention is not to perform a technical analysis but rather to talk about the factors which cannot be explained in terms of science. Weidman is technically great, but the experience of a fighter, his emotional maturity, ability to remain stoic or even excel under fire, and discipline against high-level opponents of all skill sets dictate how well he can use his technique.

The Cain Velasquez Comparison

There are plenty of examples of fighters in boxing, kickboxing and MMA picking up titles with just as few fights and undefeated records, but lack of experience is an enormous disadvantage to fighters at the highest level.

Cain Velasquez, for instance, had less than 10 bouts on his record when he defeated Brock Lesnar for the UFC heavyweight title. It seems a good comparison too because Velasquez was a wrestler who learned to strike as well as the majority of heavyweights just as Weidman is a wrestler/grappler with a better than average striking game.

There are, however, significant differences between Velasquez’s feat and what Chris Weidman is being tasked with. First, Velasquez was a heavyweight and clearly a world-class talent from early on—there isn’t a lot of that out there over 230 pounds. Even the UFC heavyweight roster is padded with professional fighters who would look pedestrian at any other weight class.

The middleweight division is nowhere near as short on talent as heavyweight, but at this point, the UFC is desperate for a new opponent for Silva. Many of the young prospects have failed to get past fighters who already had their shot at Silva and were relegated to journeyman status.

All the exciting prospects—Alan Belcher, Michael Bisping, Luke Rockhold, Hector Lombard and Rousimar Palhares—have either beaten one another or fallen to men who have already been destroyed by Silva. Weidman‘s lay-off due to injury seems to have raised his ranking in the same way as Floyd Mayweather’s inactivity did.

Equally, Velasquez’s lack of experience did catch up with him when he met Junior dos Santos for the first time. Dos Santos may have had only a few more fights than Velasquez, but they were against stiffer, better-rounded competition. Velasquez, considering himself to be a well-rounded fighter—a trait he seems to share with Weidman—was far too keen to strike with dos Santos and abandoned his takedown attempts after just one failed single leg.

In the rematch, Velasquez felt no obligation to start on the feet then work for the takedown after striking with dos Santos for a while. He had no scruples about looking silly as he dived on a few missed single legs. Soon, dos Santos tired and was easy to both grab a hold of and hit as he tried to defend his hips and legs.

This isn’t a deep technical analysis, and the strategy which Velasquez employed against dos Santos is not the ideal one for Silva, so I shall leave it there, but the Velasquez who was flustered into trying to go even with “Cigano” on the feet and attempted to jab across himself to catch dos Santos—giving Cigano his cross counter—and the Velasquez who came out and mauled Antonio Silva and dos Santos in his next two fights were different people.

Anderson Silva: A Case Study in Fight Experience

Fighting well-rounded opponents, getting beaten up and being made to look silly will benefit a fighter by removing the fear of experiencing these things and the panic that they produce. There is a world of difference between sparring with elite training partners and fighting experienced, elite fighters in front of enormous crowds on event night.

Weidman, just like Velasquez, has impressed me and others with his striking on the way to his title shot, but this could ultimately come back to hurt him just as Velasquez’s did. Weidman and Velasquez are intelligent and competent—when you consider them as wrestlers—but for them to stand with men like dos Santos and Silva without constantly threatening the takedown is just silly.

A final point to note on why Velasquez’s inexperience didn’t prevent him from winning a title is that he was fighting Lesnar. Lesnar was scary and great at what he did, but he was even less experienced under fire than Velasquez and had been deliberately steered clear of dangerous strikers for much of his career—barely scraping by the largely unproven Shane Carwin.

Silva, on the other hand, has been pressed against the fence, thrown to the floor, hit with hard punches and submitted. Silva is the best fighter around right now, but he wasn’t always so.

His resurgence after a hit-and-miss early career and serious consideration of retirement is one of the reasons that he is such an amazing character. It is also one of the reasons why he can fight with confidence even when facing adversity and why he so rarely shows complacency. He has defended a UFC title more times than anyone, and he isn’t unaccustomed to crowds or any particular skill set in his opponents.

More importantly, Silva is not scared to make mistakes or fight boring. Against Demian Maia and Patrick Cote, Silva was more than happy to hang back rather than rush them as they attempted to draw him in.

Think of how many fighters would have run in and been caught by Cote (a few) or dragged to the ground and submitted by Maia (almost anyone). Here are the major differences that experience makes: the ability to stick to a game plan, even if it isn’t entertaining, and the ability to recognize one’s weaknesses.

Silva could have run in and might have knocked out either man, but he recognizes that neither brawling nor chasing is his strong suit. Silva’s A game is countering, and everything he does is built around making his opponent lunge at him. At his best, “The Spider” is about making an opponent run onto his punch, not chasing an opponent as he did in his early career—often running into takedowns.

The Real Questions

Weidman at his best is about grappling. What makes him a great prospect for the future is that he can do everything else with enough confidence to force the fight to where he wants it or pick up easy points on the feet while he tries.

His work to stand up Mark Munoz with high kicks before shooting in low was sublime. As was his knockout of Uriah Hall, as he herded his opponent into a hard left hook as Hall kept his hands low for fear of being taken down again.

What will Weidman do against Silva’s antics? Does he have the maturity to ignore the dancing and to move Silva toward the fence with pressure?

Will he realize that feints and level changes are the nemesis of the counter striker who fights on a hair trigger? Or will he lose confidence and swing wildly?

Most importantly, does he care about looking stupid when he inevitably fails with a takedown attempt, or will he go right back to grinding on Silva—going for legs and coming in behind punches when Silva starts to sprawl?

Silva is beatable, and Weidman has every skill—on paper—necessary to defeat the champ. But if Silva turns up in fighting shape as he always does, Weidman is not going to have success on every shot or strike. Silva is probably going to hit him hard and stuff some takedown attempts.

How Weidman reacts to this when so many of his nine opponents have laid down under his tenacious assault will be crucial to his chances of wrestling the title away from the Brazilian. Maia and Munoz are a far cry from Silva in the areas in which the champion will test Weidman.

I will watch this fight with interest, as I believe that Weidman can be a force in his division, but I cannot help but feel that his development is being sacrificed in favour of finding an exciting opponent for Silva.

Weidman should at least have to beat Yushin Okami or Vitor Belfort before meeting Silva—they are at least a step up in relevance from Maia and Munoz. Ideally this fight would happen in a year, after Weidman has beaten some solid contenders, but it seems that, at middleweight, every fight involving a prospect ends in the death of an exciting potential title match.

Later this week, I will explain why I am looking forward to Weidman‘s development after this bout, win or lose. I will take a look at the striking, grappling and hybrid game of Weidman, and I will also, of course, examine some of Silva’s finest techniques and quirks.

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

Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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UFC 161 Dan Henderson: More Like Rocky Marciano Than You Think

Dan Henderson is many things, but chief amongst them is a thunderous puncher. His incredible ability to take a punch is also something which springs to the forefront of a fan’s mind when Henderson’s name is mentioned.Henderson’s power and grit, combine…

Henderson’s power and grit, combined with his willingness to fight as a much shorter, stockier man than most of his opponents has led to comparison’s with the great boxing champion, Rocky Marciano.

Marciano was the last undisputed heavyweight champion of the world (a ridiculous phrase as George Carlin pointed out, but one that fans love) to retire undefeated, one of only two men to do so. The other was the great Gene Tunney whom I mentioned in passing while analysing Fabricio Werdum the other day.

I normally despise comparisons made between great boxers and great MMA fighters because they tend to be vague and based entirely in romantic notions rather than in technical similarities. The comparison of Henderson and Marciano, however, extends beyond their great chin, heart and punch, and into the technicalities. This comparison, I believe, is worth a study—particularly for the many in the fight world who still consider punching power a magical quality.

Henderson, like a young Marciano, doesn’t have much pop in his left hand until he squares up because he stands so side on that he cannot turn his hips into a lead hand punch very well. Consequently, he cannot fight behind a stiff, punishing jab in the manner which most fans would recognize as “scientific boxing.”

It is true that the traditional jab-led style of boxing is among the most consistently successful at the highest level, but fighters who lack a solid jab have done excellently on the feet in boxing and MMA, even against fighters who fight in this traditional manner.

Obviously, no one style is perfect, and textbook boxing all depends on what textbook you are reading from (here is some advice, there aren’t many, and the only good books on boxing technique were written 50 years ago or more. They offer a wide range of methods rather than any like a consensus).

Dan Henderson and Rocky Marciano are guys who began their careers doing well up close—Henderson with his clinch and Marciano with his soul sapping infighting. Neither man had great head movement or defensive reflexes, however, and they almost always gave up a reach advantage to their opponents.

Their development of an arcing, powerful right swing was a necessity to their getting in close, but soon became what both men were known for.

Both Marciano and Henderson squat on their right leg as they shuffle forward with their feet almost in line. Rather than fighting out of a stance from which they can do everything moderately well, they choose to stand more in a position from which their primary attack is prepared, but little else is available.

Power is not magic—some of it comes from the muscles and ability to move explosively, but a great deal can be generated through a transfer of weight. This is something which Jack Dempsey—one of the greatest punchers of all time—spoke at length about in his Championship Fighting. Punches which involve a transfer of weight are what Dempsey termed “pure” punches, and these are the kind which skinny men such as Alexis Arguello can use to dowse lights.

When you have someone with a naturally strong build and muscular explosiveness who also steps into his punches and transfers his weight, you have a truly great puncher.

The transfer of weight in Henderson and Marciano’s arcing right hand is clear to see as both squat down on their rear leg then step in as they plant their weight onto their lead foot—a complete change from crouch to almost a pitching stance—and throw their right hand from their back leg. Henderson will often kick and then lunge onto his lead leg as he drops it.

For the baseball fans amongst you I shall use this somewhat shaky analogy —the orthodox boxer is like the deadball era batter—he is concerned with reacting and with staying in what is considered safe form, and both are most concerned with saving themselves from unnecessary strikes. Henderson and Marciano’s punching style is much like Babe Ruth’s then-unorthodox approach to batting—step in hard and swing. If Ruth missed, he’d try again—if Marciano missed he still got to the infight where he truly did his best work anyway, and Henderson simply moves to the clinch.

The sequence above is technically almost identical to Henderson’s knockout of Feijao. It’s also much like his knockdowns of Bisping and Shogun, though he often uses a kick before landing on it to create the step which both men use to generate power.

Henderson’s use of the right hand to close the distance is a wonderful thing to see, as the last fighter who did this well was Fedor Emelianenko and he hasn’t done it with any intent to clinch in five years or so.

The downside of Henderson’s crouch is that he cannot throw a left hook without first squaring up. I am not saying it is impossible for him to throw a left hook—in fact he has a good, hard left hook just as you would expect—but from his crouch, Hendo must make a double movement to turn his hips forward and then turn them back as he throws the hook. Otherwise, he is just slapping with his shoulders already side on.

This means that Henderson is absolutely stumped by opponents who move past his lead side, towards his left. I pointed this out some time ago, and then against Lyoto Machida it was demonstrated more clearly than any time previous. The reason that Henderson was able to beat men such as Fedor and Shogun, who had an advantage in striking on paper, was that those men took their advantage on paper and refused to use their intelligence to make it a reality.

Both Fedor and Shogun have great left hooks, good kicks (though Shogun’s knees are somewhat knackered), and Fedor had a lovely jab at his best—all techniques which can be thrown between circling away from Henderson’s power hand, or even during the movement. Instead, both men simply traded right hands with Henderson despite this being the only sort of stand up bout which suited Henderson better than them.

Marciano alleviated this problem by working earnestly to develop a brilliant lead left hook which became crisper and crisper with each match. Eventually he put Jersey Joe Walcott out a few seconds into their rematch by surprising him with this hard left hook straight off the bat (rather than getting pounded on for half an hour before landing the perfect right hand as he did in the first bout). Henderson, however, does not have a lead left hook to speak of and actually looks more one dimensional on the feet with age.

Fighters facing Henderson should simply forget their right hands—Henderson is far too happy to take a right hand to land his own, and his own always seems to come out stronger.

Tomorrow I hope to have time (and good enough internet connection) to compare Rashad Evans and Henderson’s different methods for closing the distance on their opponents despite always conceding reach and size. In brief, Henderson uses his kicks to pin his opponent in place, while Rashad rushes them, but it is certainly worth a deeper look.

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

Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com