Jack Slack | UFC Betting Sites - The Best MMA Online Bookies

UFC 160 Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva: Perfectly Flawed

Antonio Silva, more commonly known as “Bigfoot Silva,” is a mountain of a man with a thunderous punch and a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.While Silva holds wins over two of the most impressive names in heavyweight MMA—Fedor Emelianenko and Al…

Antonio Silva, more commonly known as “Bigfoot Silva,” is a mountain of a man with a thunderous punch and a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

While Silva holds wins over two of the most impressive names in heavyweight MMA—Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem—he is one of the most obviously flawed fighters in MMA today. While Silva can punch, he can’t box for love nor money, and while he has one of the scariest top games in MMA, he is an exceptionally poor wrestler.

Lumbering Striking

The first major flaw in Silva’s game is the ponderous way in which he begins every fight. In almost every bout, Bigfoot plods toward his opponent and simply stands there as if he is considering the options available to him—but then almost always leads with a right low kick without any setup.

The right leg kick is the strike which travels the furthest distance to reach the target—it is easy to see coming even when faster men perform it. Where utilizing this technique without set up worked well at Glory 8’s 65kg tournament, it will not work in heavyweight MMA. I am sure we all remember how Bigfoot came out and immediately sacrificed his puncher’s chance by giving Cain Velasquez his leg.

Despite having incredibly heavy hands, Bigfoot is often too slow and ponderous to land them. He will simply stand in front of his opponent, waiting for an opening that either isn’t there or that he is too slow to exploit. Bigfoot stands so flatfooted and upright that he is incredibly vulnerable to arcing right hands and his slow hands—reaching hands—make him vulnerable to hooks around his guard.

In truth, Silva never looks all that bad when he’s going after opponents with punches—almost all of the shots that have hurt him have come as he attempts to defend himself. Silva, like Urijah Faber, simply spends too much of a match waiting to strike and not actually striking.

Limited Guard Game

Silva is a black belt in jiu-jitsu, after all, and has been on the ground with men like Fabricio Werdum and Fedor Emelianenko, but grapplers aren’t his problem. Bigfoot, in a way very similar to Frank Mir, struggles with men who are happy to hold him down and hit him.

B.J Penn put it best when he said in his Mixed Martial Arts Book of Knowledge that the man on the bottom should always be looking to sweep, submit or stand up. Andre Galvao expressed similar thoughts from a guard passer’s perspective in his book Drill to Win.

While Shinya Aoki and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira provide the threat of sweeps and submissions on the ground or returning to the feet if they wanted to, Mir only threatens submissions and Bigfoot only threatens sweeps.

Watching Daniel Cormier and Velasquez in Silva’s guard, they were able to break free of his grips, return to the feet and dive back on him with punches while he simply laid on the floor instead of using the space to at least attempt to stand up.

Wrestling

The biggest flaw in Bigfoot’s game, though, is his weak wrestling game. Obviously, Silva doesn’t have the kind of guard which he can simply pull and use to sweep to top position or submit his opponent as Demian Maia or Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira can.

In order to land his crushing ground and pound Silva has to use his meat-and-potatoes wrestling game which lacks any of the finesse of the division’s smaller ground-and-pounders.

With a near 50-pound weight advantage against Emelianenko, who had forgotten how to do anything but swing his right hand, Silva still struggled to get the fight to the mat. On a couple of occasions, Silva had Fedor against the fence and went for his hips, but still struggled to get the smaller man down. Silva even hoisted him into the air and ended up underneath the great Russian.

Now, obviously, this is Fedor we’re talking about and not some scrub, but a 50-pound weight advantage should never be reduced to naught in the clinch unless the bigger man genuinely has no idea what he’s doing.

When Bigfoot did eventually get Fedor down on his own terms, at the beginning of the second round, it was by shooting underneath the lead overhand right which Fedor had thrown exclusively and repeatedly throughout the first round. Fedor’s hips were so exposed and his weight so committed to the punch that most middleweights could have taken him down if they timed his predictable right hand.

From the top, Bigfoot did exactly what Bigfoot does so well, but his inability to get there against quality opponents of his own size means that all his talent at destroying men from top position might never even come in to play at the highest levels.

Silva’s last two big wins have come through bizarre circumstances as arrogant opponents dived onto his right hand for him, but it is unlikely that Velasquez—someone who takes his job very, very seriously—would make the same ridiculous mistakes.

What improvements could Bigfoot make to up his game exponentially? Firstly, stop waiting and actually throw some punches. No one is happy to counterpunch against a 260-pound behemoth, it’s just not a comfortable situation to be in.

Silva also showed some good boxing sense in his match with Overeem, as he took note of Overeem’s head movement and caught the Dutchman with a solid uppercut which served as the beginning of the end.

The second—and more important—factor is to actually work to get opponents underneath him. Bigfoot Silva could starch an elephant if he mounted it, but he lacks the wrestling or guard games to trouble 230-pound wrestlers.

Oh, and of course, he should steer clear of kicking altogether. His kicks are hard, but they aren’t fight-changers—unless they’re landing him underneath someone.

Of course, Silva could pull off the upset against Velasquez—he is a puncher’s chance with a black belt attached—but he will not show any consistency against truly elite competition until he addresses these issues.

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

A Brutally Honest Look at Jon Jones vs. Anderson Silva

I am not a fan of the idea of the champion versus champion superfights that every MMA journalist seems to be talking about.It seems that everyone in the MMA world wants to pretend that the arduous weight cuts which fighters put themselves through are p…

I am not a fan of the idea of the champion versus champion superfights that every MMA journalist seems to be talking about.

It seems that everyone in the MMA world wants to pretend that the arduous weight cuts which fighters put themselves through are purely formalities, and that fighters who work their hardest to fight as the biggest men in their weight classes would happily go up and have no problem against the champion in the class above.

While the superfights are never going to happen because they are simply terrible business strategy, I have received an awful lot of requests to look at the hypothetical variables of a bout between UFC middleweight demigod Anderson Silva and young light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

As a preface, Anderson Silva is the greatest striker in MMA, and I wholeheartedly believe that.

Unfortunately, a good striker will not pretend reach, size and the availability and risk of a tie-up mean nothing. If you are expecting an article where I hype up both sides and end with “this really is anyone’s fight,” you are going to be heartbroken.

Wrestling

It should be no secret that Jon Jones will have a definitive advantage in the wrestling department.

Not only is Jones known as the best wrestler in his division, but Silva’s most obvious Achilles’ heel is his difficulty in stopping takedowns from elite takedown artists. While Silva had some success against Chael Sonnen in stopping takedowns—albeit with some grabbing of Sonnen‘s shorts—Jones will also have a massive size and strength advantage.

Much of Silva’s success against wrestlers who enjoy getting takedowns from the clinch (such as Yushin Okami) has come from his use of a striking-based counter-clinch.

Silva will place his back to the fence and work to get his forearms in front of his opponent’s collar bones in order to take a double collar tie on the neck and work for separation and the space to land his brutal knees to the rib cage.

Jones’ work from the clinch is also excellent. He combines his brilliant trips and balance breaks with opportunities to break away and strike. A staple of the Jones game which we have seen numerous times is his placing an opponent’s back on the fence, pushing under their chin with one or both hands to pin them in place and create space and then spinning for an elbow strike.

While Anderson Silva had the technique to counter natural 205-pounder Stephan Bonnar‘s strength, Bonnar was not a very good wrestler or striker. Every time Bonnar leaned on Silva, Silva would pop Bonnar‘s head up with a shoulder bump or turn Bonnar into the fence and connect a hard knee.

Jones, meanwhile, is technically elite in both regards, in addition to being a huge 205-pound fighter.

Much of Silva’s ability to stay off of his back in his bouts since entering the UFC has come not from his actual counter wrestling, but from his positioning and footwork.

While Silva has improved exponentially as a fighter since his days in PRIDE and Shooto, fighting in a ring really worked to his disadvantage. In the cage, there are no significant corners, and Silva can move around freely without hitting a wall unless he is physically pushed on to it.

Cutting off the cage is still a poorly practised skill all around in MMA, but Jones has shown to be at least decent at it. He managed to move Lyoto Machida—almost identical to Silva in his use of footwork to take away the possibility of takedowns—onto the fence with a well-placed slip and clinch.

(Gif of that here.)

Silva has been able to back-track for 25 minutes before when he doesn’t want to engage at close quarters—just look at his bout with Demian Maia.

But Maia’s understanding of the striking game is limited entirely to knowing how to throw a decent roundhouse kick. If the slow-moving Yushin Okami can get Anderson Silva to the fence with nothing to serve as a threat but his predictable jab, it is safe to assume that Jon Jones—who has a complete tool kit on the feet—can as well.

I think it is safe to assume that once the bout hits the ground, it is Jones’ fight to lose. His ground-and-pound is unmatched in MMA at present, and Silva’s only real defence from guard against good ground-and-pounders is usually to lock in a body triangle with his legs (something which is unlikely to work against a man as large as Jones), tie up the opponent’s hands and stall out.

Jon Jones is far removed from Chael Sonnen, who seems to strike for appearance on the ground more than effectiveness. Jones’s few elbows on the ground against Lyoto Machida completely destroyed his composure in moments.

Weathering the storm against Jones on the ground is not an option. Unlike Chael Sonnen, Jones is not prone to tiring himself out and getting submitted.

Striking

To me, this is really the be-all and end-all of this hypothetical. So many of those who actually hope this match will take place are deluding themselves that while Jones has the edge on the ground, Silva should have the edge on the feet.

To anyone who has really thought about it at length it is obvious that Silva does not.

Silva is arguably the best boxer in MMA to date—his tactics on the feet are brilliant as he draws strikes and counters with ease—but he is a fighter who almost always fights with a reach advantage and really uses it.

Against grapplers, it is particularly important to Silva that he has a good reach advantage, because when he flat-out doesn’t want to engage, he will go to long jabs and the side kicks to the knee joint and low kicks to the calf—hard kicks to catch, but easy ones to throw.

Anderson’s entire game is also about making his opponent come to him. Anyone who has watched his bouts with Thales Leites or Patrick Cote will know that Silva hates to lead. Silva will get ahead on the scorecards with long, flashy strikes in order to force his opponent to come forward—at which point he can begin his famous counterpunching.

Unfortunately, all of the tactics which Anderson uses to keep his range against grapplers and force opponents to attack him with strikes are in Jones’ arsenal, and Jones uses them just as well as Silva. Think about how easily Jones used his strikes to the knee joint to keep Vitor Belfort, Quinton Jackson and Rashad Evans from closing the distance on him.

This would be a match where Anderson Silva would be the man forced to close the distance—all the while avoiding the clinch—and that is something we have very rarely seen him do. Against Forrest Griffin, Silva took a rare moment of offensive action as he pressured Griffin backward, then hit him with a right hook as Griffin circled out. That was simply sublime.

(Gif of that here.)

But why would Jon Jones, who would actively want to clinch, retreat from Anderson’s jabs?

What Silva would need to do to win is exactly what Machida did so well against Jones—the Kyotaro/Machida strategy. Back up and run until the opponent over-commits, and jump in with a power punch to meet them.

Now there’s nothing to stop Silva doing this. He’s the best striker in MMA—I’m sure he could pick it up in five minutes of sparring. But the problem is that in using this sort of strategy, one will still end up in clinch range whenever one steps in.

In David vs. Goliath matches in boxing (such as David Haye vs. Nikolai Valuev or Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito) or kickboxing (such as Kyotaro vs. Semmy Schilt/Peter Aerts), the smaller fighter can back up and run until he wants to step in, then clinch if he doesn’t hurt his opponent and the referee will simply break them.

In MMA, that clinch will mean the bigger fighter can push to the fence and start beating the smaller fighter up.

Conclusions

He who controls the range controls the fight, and both Silva and Jones have used their side kicks and oblique kicks to the knee joint and footwork to amply demonstrate that point in the past.

Unfortunately, with the massive height and reach advantage that Jones would boast against Silva, it is easy to see him out-pointing The Spider early with the sort of tactics that Silva uses himself to get ahead on the score cards.

Silva would be forced to close the distance, and in this he is no more proven than Quinton Jackson or Rashad Evans were. He certainly has not shown the same ability to close the distance against opponents that Vitor Belfort has, and Belfort could get nothing going against Jones.

Now with head movement and footwork as good as Silva’s, it shouldn’t be impossible to perform the difficult task of learning a completely new method of fighting. But once Silva closes the distance, he is still in trouble. In boxing if you get inside an opponent’s reach, he has nothing except the clinch. Jones’ elbows are still among the most savage strikes in MMA, and he’s happy to jam them in the face of his shorter opponents in their own punching range.

Finally, if Jones did want to clinch after the distance was closed, there is very little to suggest Silva could stop the takedown or the ground-and-pound assault. It is notable that Silva’s only fights at light heavyweight have been basically exhibitions against opponents who are not gifted wrestlers, but “scrappy” guys who were there to engage Silva.

Jon Jones represents a taller, heavier fighter who is good enough at the reach-abusing tactics which Silva loves that he can stop Silva closing the distance and beat him up at range.

In addition to being a hard man to handle on the feet, however, Jones’s greatest strength is in the area of Silva’s greatest weakness—he is an extremely strong and skilled wrestler who routinely stops opponents on the ground.

If Silva couldn’t stop the takedown—and the evidence suggests he couldn’t—he would not be able to bide his time from the bottom, and elite as his ground game is, he simply doesn’t have the kind of guard which will allow him to submit or sweep Jones whenever he wants.

Obviously a fight is a fight, and if Silva did overcome these physical disadvantages and learn an entirely new method of fighting after however many years, he would be the greatest fighter of all time, no doubt. Unfortunately, experience and good sense strongly side with Jon Jones and the idea that bigger, but equally talented, is better.

Ultimately, weight classes exist for a reason, and Jon Jones and Anderson Silva go through arduous weight cuts for the same reason. Currently the MMA media is enjoying playing up the delusional idea that the UFC would sacrifice one of its unbeatable champions to the other for one night of good pay-per-view sales.

Instead, the hype surrounding the possible superfight just serves to make more fans tune in to view mismatches such as Silva vs. Bonnar and Jones vs. Sonnen.

Jack Slack breaks down over 70 striking tactics employed by 20 elite strikers in his first ebook, Advanced Striking, and discusses the fundamentals of strategy in his new ebook, Elementary Striking.

Jack can be found on Twitter, Facebook and at his blog: Fights Gone By.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

What Can Michael Bisping Learn from Roy ‘Big Country’ Nelson?

UFC 159 was a peculiar card in many ways. Between the bizarre circumstances which halted the bout between Michael Bisping and Alan Belcher, and Jon Jones managing to significantly injure himself against an opponent who had no hope of being a serious th…

There was, however, at least one fight which went exactly as most would expect, as Cheick Kongo was starched early by Roy Nelson. All of the flaws in Kongo’s game which I demonstrated earlier in the week were present and culminated in an easy night’s work for Nelson.

“Big Country” showed early that Kongo’s usual stalling tactics against the fence wouldn’t work as well as they did against Matt Mitrione and Shawn Jordan—Nelson pinned Kongo to the fence with double underhooks for much of the opening minutes.

As soon as the fighters broke apart, Nelson was pressuring Kongo, who was forced to fight with his back to the fence. Unable to run, Kongo had the choice—punch, kick or clinch. Clinching Nelson, who was so much shorter and clearly happy to wrestle against the fence seemed like a bad idea, so Kongo tried to throw strikes with his back to the wall.

This was tactical suicide. If one hopes to strike off of the fence (which is probably the last option for a great striker, as it is far better to fake, draw a strike and either tie up or exit) one must commit to attacks which will make the opponent defend himself and give space to escape from the fence.

Kongo instead pumped a couple of backhanded, obviously faked jabs, then lunged in with a lead low leg kick. Kicking with one’s back to the fence is a pretty bad idea because there is almost nothing one can do when an opponent steps in and either grabs the leg (as Gilbert Melendez did to Benson Henderson in the first round of their title bout) or simply step in with a hard punch as Nelson did.

Kongo’s hands were low—as they almost always are when he kicks—and he was easily floored by Nelson, who immediately followed up with a hard punch on the ground to prompt the stoppage.

Against men who refuse to prioritize movement and defence, Nelson will continue to pick up devastating and easy victories. He’s not a great boxer and he can’t set his punches up or throw combinations for toffee—but Nelson knows where he and his opponent need to be. If fighters such as Stefan Struve, Kongo and Mitrione keep coming in thinking they will win because they have more tools, Nelson’s list of big-name finishes will continue to grow.

Michael Bisping‘s lack of hooks

On the other end of the spectrum there is Michael Bisping, who could learn a good deal from Roy Nelson despite “Big Country” being the less respected striking technician.

Nelson is a one-trick pony but he is excellent at moving himself and his opponent into positions where his one trick will prove the most effective.

I talk about this a good deal in my analysis but it is an important concept and often dictates who we think of as a power puncher and who we think of as pillow-fisted. Using an inappropriate strike will lead to glancing connections or ones which the opponent can simply shake off.

Striking is about creating collisions. If one wants to connect a hard right hook, throwing it at the opponent as he moves to your left is hopeless. Even if the strike doesn’t die out before it gets to him, the opponent will easily take the blow because he is moving in the same direction as the force. What one should do when attempting to land a right hook is what Nelson does—trap opponents along the fence and give them space to move into the right hand.

What Bisping does is use his jab, which is a good punch—sharp, accurate and enough to make men like Chris Leben and Wanderlei Silva stop in their tracks. However, Bisping uses it in all situations. If his opponent is running straight toward him, Bisping‘s jab will do good damage, as will his straight right hand. The problem is that opponents rarely run in on Bisping because they know he has a good jab.

If an opponent is moving side to side, as Alan Belcher did effectively in the first round of their bout—and to an extent the third—Bisping struggles to make meaningful connections at all because he is so limited to straight punches. He will use the roundhouse kicks from time to time to stop an opponent circling, but these are mainly a tool to stand them still for his straight punches again.

Bisping is not so much a technical striker as a striker who has gotten to a high level in using the most well rounded weapon—the jab. There are plenty of times when the jab as a single strike is flat out useless, such as against a very laterally mobile opponent. On these occasions it should be used only to hide the intentions and a roundhouse strike should be connected as the opponent circles into its path.

For much of the bout with Belcher, Bisping was the much better fighter, but his counter blows often missed or glanced off Belcher as the 29-year-old moved away. Every attempt at a counter right straight ended up hitting air.

It was only later in the fight that Bisping started attempting left and right hooks to catch Belcher circling, but these were arm punches and lacked the commitment of weight and hip motion that Nelson’s punches do.

Ultimately Belcher‘s gameplan was actually pretty sound, as Bisping is rarely in the position of the offensive pressure fighter. Instead it is normally Bisping who is between his opponent and the fence. Bisping himself has on several occasions been the man eating hooks as he circles into their power.

Notice how Bisping‘s right straights often missed Belcher altogether, and when Bisping actually began using the right hook to meet Belcher as he circled, Bisping was clearly so unpractised in cutting off the ring and herding an opponent into left hooks and wide rights that he struggled to hurt an opponent who was offering almost no offence of his own.

While Nelson seems to be the less technically skilled fighter and certainly struggles when fighters take away his right hand, his power is not just from a natural aptitude to punching, but rather due to the occasions he creates where his right hand will work best.

A Michael Bisping who could actually cause damage with arcing punches would be so much more effective against high-level competition that is unwilling to chase him and run on to jabs all night. In truth, both men are pretty limited in their variety of tactics on the feet, the difference is that Bisping‘s are more in line with what most people recognize as good boxing.

Jack Slack breaks down over 70 striking tactics employed by 20 elite strikers in his first ebook, Advanced Striking, and discusses the fundamentals of strategy in his new ebook, Elementary Striking.

Jack can be found on MMA” target=”_blank”>Twitter, Facebook and at his blog: Fights Gone By.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Why Cheick Kongo Is Not a Great Striker

Cheick Kongo is an enigma in MMA—someone who is continually billed as an elite striker based on his kickboxing record but who regularly looks flat and unpolished in the cage.The 6’4″ Frenchman carries a massive 82″ reach and several titles in kic…

Cheick Kongo is an enigma in MMA—someone who is continually billed as an elite striker based on his kickboxing record but who regularly looks flat and unpolished in the cage.

The 6’4″ Frenchman carries a massive 82″ reach and several titles in kickboxing, savate and Muay Thai, yet has looked mediocre on the feet against all but the lowest level heavyweights. How can it be that a man with such a respected Muay Thai career could struggle on the feet against men like Matt Mitrione?

There is absolutely no denying that Kongo was incredibly skilled in his kickboxing career—the few videos that exist of it make him look sublime—but they highlight the errors which still plague his game and have been amplified to make him look so middling as a striker in the UFC.

What Kongo suffers from is the fate of any kickboxer who moves to MMA—he lacks the wrestling pedigree or ability to play guard to be able to throw kicks with impunity. Anytime Kongo throws a kick he must constantly be aware of being taken to the mat.

Against good grapplers Kongo will fake kicks, but never actually throw any. Against Frank Mir, Kongo faked a couple of kicks which made Mir back up, but then proceeded to do nothing and Mir simply steamrolled him.

Kongo’s second great weapon—the clinch—also falls apart against competent wrestlers and indeed opponents who have trained to shake off his blanketing tactics such as Mark Hunt, who easily maneuvered himself off of the fence when Kongo went to the wall and stall.

The downfall of any great striker moving to MMA is that if your kickboxing game is not solid in the punching department you have no areas of the fight in which you are the dominant party.

It is simply easier to learn to sprawl if you have the boxing game to be able to keep both feet on the ground throughout the fight, and you will fair far better than most strikers moving to MMA. If kicking is your bread and butter, then you move to a sport where a mistimed kick, or even a perfectly connected kick can mean being put on your back.

Kongo does not have a solid boxing game, which is even more of a shame because of his arm length and could be a real force in his division if he could simply use it. Because of Kongo’s love of bouncing footwork and need to kick fast he stands bolt upright at all times, and this carries over to his punching attempts.

A solid boxing game also serves to set up the kicking game, as the opponent can be forced to cover with a combination and then kicked as he is shelled up. This is Dutch kickboxing 101, but Kongo has never set his kicks up well, and he’s unlikely to start now.

When he steps in with jabs or his right straight, Kongo will almost lean back rather than hide behind his punching shoulder as he should. Furthermore, where punching effectiveness and elusiveness can be improved by combining a slip to the non-punching side with straight punches, Kongo comes in with his head in one place at all times.

With his head forever in the same position as he charges, Kongo’s opponents could close their eyes (sadly not an uncommon feature in the heavyweight division), duck and throw back with a good chance of connecting.

When Kongo is punching he is so used to being at his range that he doesn’t keep his guard up at all in many of his bouts. Watching him demolish some of the lower tier heavyweights whom the UFC matched him against in his early UFC career, Kongo will stand in front of them with his head upright, his non-punching hand down by his nipples and go completely unpunished for it.

Now that isn’t to say that Kongo’s hands are the worst in the UFC heavyweight division—not by any stretch of the imagination. Clearly his reach and power are massively effective against men who lack the ability to slip and counter. Kongo did an excellent job at landing his right straight in combinations against Mirko Cro Cop.

Cro Cop was actually a good matchup for Kongo stylistically. In Cro Cop’s kickboxing career he had trouble with quick kickers who set up their strikes better than him, such as Ernesto Hoost and Andy Hug. Furthermore Cro Cop’s money punch was not a slip and a counter (he rarely moved his head) but a side-step counter left straight.

By using his powerful kicks effectively against an opponent who was unlikely to take him down (on principal more than anything), Kongo could keep Cro Cop standing in front of him for his long straight punches.

Kongo’s problems come against men who will make him miss and throw looping punches over his own. Hunt let Kongo chase him and caught him with a left hook as Kongo recovered his right straight. Pat Barry meanwhile used his lead hand to hook over the top of Kongo’s jab.

Roy Nelson is certainly the type of puncher who could come over the top of an ill advised Kongo punch and starch the Frenchman, he also has the kind of ground game which should put Kongo off of using his great kicks. What Nelson doesn’t have, however, is a great wrestling game or cardio. This fight, like all heavyweight fights, will hinge wildly around who fades first and whether the big puncher can land before he fades.

What is certain, however, is that Kongo’s striking when we consider the whole—kicking, boxing and clinch work—is far short of great in just one major area.

Jack Slack breaks down over 70 striking tactics employed by 20 elite strikers in his first ebook, Advanced Striking, and discusses the fundamentals of strategy in his new ebook, Elementary Striking.

Jack can be found on Twitter, Facebook and at his blog: Fights Gone By.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC on Fox 7 Breakdown: The Wheels Fall off the Diaz Wagon

UFC on Fox 7 provided everything a fan, or journalist, could want. There were knockouts galore, an underdog story in Thompson vs. Diaz, a young prospect against a veteran in Mir vs. Cormier and a controversial decision in the title match between M…

Let’s jump right in to the analysis with a look at Mir vs. Cormier.

Daniel Cormier‘s Dirty Boxing

Most had the feeling when this fight was signed it was something of an easy match for Daniel Cormier. Historically, Mir has struggled with strong top players once he has exhausted himself with his submission attempts—hence his being picked for the UFC debut of Brock Lesnar. While the initial Lesnar-Mir match showed what an excellent opportunist Mir is, outside of the few seconds of his offense it went exactly as a great wrestler against a jiu-jitsu player with no inclination to return to his feet should.

Cormier surprised many by not attempting any takedowns throughout the fight and instead used his wrestling to move Mir to the fence—where he opened up with punches and beautiful clinching knees. I have a strong affection for the dirty boxing style because of the efficacy of the strikes which are landed through its use, but the crowd was not always on Cormier‘s side.

Holding a man of Mir’s size—even though his wrestling has never been great—against the fence takes a great deal of effort even for an elite wrestler like Cormier, and he was unable to work with the fervor that defined Randy Couture’s best performances. It was, however, far from a snoozer (which some of Couture’s worst performances certainly were).

Cormier continually looked to take an underhook and hike it up, exposing Mir’s ribs on that side. A hard knee strike in the ribs will do a lot more damage than one to a tensed or even flabby abdomen.

He often got away with resting his underhooking hand on the top of the cage to hold Mir in position, a cheeky but savvy move on Cormier‘s part.

Mir was immediately able to recognize the issue and began trying to free his arms whenever underhooked. As soon as Cormier felt Mir’s arms come inside, he would push off and throw a nice combination with his hands.

The brief stints out in the open just showed Cormier to be the faster fighter of the two. Mir hasn’t always been slow on the feet, but his attempts seem to have slowed him down severely. With the exception of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira I am hard pressed to think of a fighter who is so fast on the ground but so slow on the feet.

This was not Cormier‘s best performance, neither was it Mir’s worst—this was entertaining but certainly not a crowd pleaser.

Nate Diaz vs. Josh Thompson

Nobody saw this one coming. I doubt even Thompson’s own family would have pegged him to knock out the granite-jawed and iron-willed Nate Diaz.

The view which I have expressed numerous times through articles is that the Diaz brothers would eventually get stopped on the feet if they hang around the sport long enough. They simply get hit too much, but letting your strategy hinge around being the first person to stop them is a great way to have a bad night. Donald Cerrone, Marcus Davis and numerous others can testify to that.

I have been talking about it for some time now but fighters are finally starting to pick up on the glaring holes in the Diaz game—complete absence of the ability to cut off the cage and an inability to deal with low kicks.

Where the Diaz brothers walk straight after an opponent in a narrow stance—a fighter who is looking to cut off the ring will square up slightly and look to get between his opponent and the direction which they are looking to move. Using strikes from the side to which the opponent is moving is the best way to herd an opponent towards the fence.

Matt Brown did this masterfully against Jordan Mein earlier in the night.

Thompson switched stances constantly, fighting instead out of a squared stance as he side-stepped around the ring. This method of not using a stance at all until engaging was used through over 200 fights by the legendary boxer, Willie Pep.

Attacking with low kicks, Thompson would clinch Diaz any time he got close, and spin him onto the fence. From here Thompson would use knees and short elbows before breaking away and getting on his bike again.

Early in the first round Thompson connected two kicks to Diaz‘s head as Diaz continued to drop his hands in reaction to the low kicks. While Diaz was able to stay on his feet after these blows, taking two head kicks without adjustment is not a good sign.

In the second round Thompson crouched slightly and came up with another high kick, putting Diaz on rubber legs and clipped him with a right hand to put him on the floor. From here Thompson pounded the Stockton representative out.

There’s not much more to say about the finishing technique—fake low, kick high, it’s the oldest technique in the book but it keeps working.

Thompson has always shown a willingness to try exciting things on the feet—his jumping kicks against K.J. Noons in an otherwise boring match showed that, and he certainly made Gilbert Melendez work—but this is just about the most disciplined and intelligent Thompson we have seen on the feet. He was happy to punch Diaz when Diaz chased him, but he never pushed his luck.

Thompson’s use of the full cage, low kicks and tie ups set up the knock out, the flashy head kick simply secured it.

Jack Slack breaks down over 70 striking tactics employed by 20 elite strikers in his first ebook, Advanced Striking, and discusses the fundamentals of strategy in his new ebook, Elementary Striking.

Jack can be found on MMA” target=”_blank”>Twitter, Facebook and at his blog: Fights Gone By.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Matt Brown and Team Alpha Male: Real Improvement?

UFC on Fox 7 provided a great night of entertainment from top to bottom and reportedly tied the record for most knockouts on a single UFC card. Looking through there were many moments from the main card that deserve talking about – from the closely fought title bout, to Josh Thompson’s knockout of Nate Diaz, to Daniel Cormier‘s dirty boxing clinic – but also a few from the undercard which deserve a look.

This piece will focus on the successes of the Team Alpha Male fighters and of Matt ‘The Immortal’ Brown.

My second piece on UFC on Fox 7 can be found here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1613106-ufc-on-fox-7-breakdown-the-wheels-fall-off-the-diaz-wagon

Team Alpha Male – 3 Fights, 3 Knockouts

The talk of the early event was the improvement of the Team Alpha Male fighters under the striking tutelage of Duane ‘Bang’ Ludwig. While each of the Team Alpha Male fighters on the card put on a show, I feel it might be a little premature to declare huge improvement in each. Jabs were still almost completely absent in the TAM fighters and they mostly opted instead to swing right hands over and over as their figurehead, Urijah Faber, does to the point of being predictable.

T.J. Dillashaw looked largely disciplined as he caught his lingering opponent with the type of right straight counter which Ludwig has practiced and stressed throughout his career (not to mention picking up the fastest knockout in UFC history with).

Joseph Benavidez, meanwhile, walked Darren Uyenoyama down, swinging wild with slapping rights and lefts but punctuating his performance with sharp kicks. Benavidez‘s boxing looked somewhat sloppy as he ran in behind his face with his hands low over and over again, but through switching stances he was able to confuse Uyenoyama and eventually land a good left hook to the body which slumped Darren to the mat. Benavidez has far more strike variety than Faber or Mendes, but his lunging in behind his face could get him into trouble against elite fighters.

Ultimately both Dillashaw and Benavidez benefited enormously from the inexperience of their opponents on their feet but put forth entertaining performances over decent fighters.

Chad Mendes gave by far the most intimidating showing as he came out and used the traditional Team Alpha Male strategy of eschewing straight punches in favor of looking to land a right hook from wherever he could.

Whether it be off a parried jab, a slip or immediately after a first right hook. Mendes was able to stun his opponent by running forward with a right straight to right hook, and finished by slipping inside a desperate jab and landing a perfect cross counter.

Those of you who have read my pieces before will know how highly I rate the cross counter as a strike – and it’s long history of knockouts will certainly testify to that belief.

While the complete absence of jabs from most performances by TAM fighters is actually a sensible move – they are wrestlers who are looking to close the distance after all, not strikers looking to maintain the distance – it is really the absence of much left handed offense at all which lets the TAM fighters down. It is simply so predictable at the highest level what they are going to do, and this is largely responsible for Urijah Faber’s getting ground down and shown up at range in all of his recent title fights.

Matt Brown Continues his Career Resurgence

I want to get it out of the way before I begin – Matt Brown is not a hugely technically-gifted fighter and at this stage in his career I am sure that the holes in his game are going to be slower or almost impossible to tighten up – but ‘The Immortal’ has a gift for violence which has to be respected.

Some men can be taught to throw fundamental strikes with all the snap and venom of a great puncher, but they still have to be told what to do when they are getting in the cage. Brown is very good at simply making it up as he goes along.

The first thing that deserves praise from that bout is Jordan Mein‘s hand trap elbow. A lovely technique, Brown actually used this same method to eliminate Mike Swick‘s highly regarded hands and stun him with an elbow.

What Brown did so well was something which Nate Diaz utterly failed to do in his bout with Josh Thompson later in the card – cut off the cage and punish the opponent when he tried to escape.

It is not enough to go straight at someone when their back is on the fence in MMA – they can circle out, they can tie you up or they can take you down. Far better to give them just enough space that they can’t move back but feel the need to run out to the side.

Matt Brown showed excellent fight IQ by refusing to stall against the fence but instead letting Mein pick his poison. As Mein ran out to Brown’s left he was met by a left hook (the same one that knocked out the running Mike Swick), and as he went to Brown’s right Mein was met by a right hand or a right roundhouse kick.

It may seem basic but getting an opponent to run on to your strikes is one of the most important principles of an offensive striking game, and Matt Brown has shown it better than many of the best strikers in MMA have been able to when they are giving chase.

A final, beautiful facet of Brown’s performance was his finish. As his opponent was turtled, Brown popped up to his feet (it is becoming much more common to attack the turtle from standing with knees) but as Mein shielded his sides, Brown instead connected a brutal elbow strike to the temple. Brown followed up with elbows to the back of the ribs and kidneys to finish.

Reviewing that fight I hope you will understand what I meant by Brown having a gift for creativity in his violence. There are far, far better strikers and fighters out there who wouldn’t be as savvy or ruthless in their finish as Brown was.

Jack Slack breaks down over 70 striking tactics employed by 20 elite strikers in his first ebook, Advanced Striking, and discusses the fundamentals of strategy in his new ebook, Elementary Striking.

Jack can be found on Twitter, Facebook and at his blog: Fights Gone By.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com