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Carlos Condit: King Opportunist

Carlos Condit is a mixed martial artist for the fans.
He finishes fights, and even when he loses, he does so while looking for the knockout or submission at every opportunity. He faced a great deal of criticism for fighting smart against Nick Diaz, and…

Carlos Condit is a mixed martial artist for the fans.

He finishes fights, and even when he loses, he does so while looking for the knockout or submission at every opportunity. He faced a great deal of criticism for fighting smart against Nick Diaz, and he has not had a single slow match since.

Perhaps Condit is the best example of the kind of fighter who can pull in fans for the UFC, but more than that he is an example, to every martial artist, of the importance of opportunism.

Take, for instance, his bout with Dong Hyun Kim. Each time Kim stepped in with strikes in order to get to the clinch, Condit nailed him with a counterpunch. On the occasion that Kim took Condit down, “The Natural Born Killer” immediately started working from the bottom and found an opportunity to turn the Korean over.

Condit is known as a striker, but when the fight hits the ground and he’s on the bottom, he never looks to hold and get the stand up. He wastes no time getting to work and making stuff happen. Even if he’s taken down at every turn on the feet, he is almost always up again in the next 30 seconds.

The moment that Kim displayed a flaw, whether on the feet or the ground, Condit was taking a mile for every inch given to him.

Nowhere was this more obvious than when, for the briefest of moments, Kim’s back came near the fence. Condit had thrown a combination and backed Kim up, finishing it with a lazy front kick at head height.

Suddenly he realized that Kim was on the fence, and his pace changed in an instant. From the lazy kick he planted his feet and leapt in with a flying knee. He caught Kim with nowhere to go and starched the Korean.

That is not to say that Condit will always knock an opponent out for his errors. You know as well as I do that the only absolute in sports is that there are no absolute rules. Condit’s bout with Johny Hendricks was close, but Condit often threw away his advantages by pressing them too hard.

What do I mean? Well, Hendricks’ strategy throughout the bout was to throw combinations, get Condit to the fence and finish takedowns. He did this several times in the first round, and Condit worked his way up each time.

When Condit finally had Hendricks with his back to the fence, he immediately jumped in with a knee (which fell short), ending up trading with Hendricks and being turned onto the fence. This was a great example of grasping an opportunity perhaps too eagerly. Not only did the knee fall short, but Condit gave up the superior cage position and ultimately another takedown attempt.

Even in this example of rushing and throwing away a good opportunity, however, Condit showed his ability to roll with the punches (figuratively) and look for further opportunities. Hendricks turned him onto the fence and went for the high crotch, while Condit immediately locked in a kimura and fell to his back on his own terms. Through trying to finish the hold, he ended up on Hendricks’ back and in position to finish the fight.

Condit attempted the same knee along the fence in the second round and sacrificed a takedown immediately.

One of the things that really showed in Condit’s most recent bout, a rematch with Martin Kampmann, was his employment of a more rational, pressuring style when he had his man along the fence—not leaping in with the knee and hoping to finish.

Kampmann had been attempting to use his underrated wrestling to get the better of Condit throughout the fight, and he’d been having success in taking down his opponent. In the fourth round, however, Condit managed to manoeuvre Kampmann toward the fence. From there, he applied the pressure without jumping onto a takedown.

Throwing off combinations and making sure to exit with the left hook or that fall-away left high kick that he loves, Condit was able to land hard blows as Kampmann—always the counterpuncher—was attempting to fire back.

Notice that instead of the initial combination, it was almost always the last punch as Condit was retreating back into his guard that wobbled Kampmann.

Kampmann has made a career out of punching second and coming out on top (just as Hendricks did against Condit), but Condit’s retreating left hook and left high kick served to punish the Dane for pursuing the counter.

Condit, despite being considered a veteran of the sport and the division, is still learning, growing and looking for ways to improve his exciting, opportunistic but somewhat reckless style.

He meets Tyron Woodley at UFC 171 on Saturday, and we will see how he deals with yet another opponent who will be looking to get him to the fence and put him on his back over and over again.

Pick up Jack’s eBooks Advanced Striking and Elementary Striking from his blog, Fights Gone By. Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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MMA: The Weekend’s Best Knockout Finishes

This weekend was a real treat for fight fans. It was one of those brilliant Saturdays where the stars aligned (or promoters failed to consider each other) and there was a UFC card, a GLORY kickboxing card and a boxing card on the same night.
There were…

There were plenty of bad fights, of course. Michael Johnson refused to attack Melvin Guillard while the latter was on the fence for the entire match, and Brad Scott managed to land the most unnoticed groin strikes I’ve seen in a UFC match since Cheick Kongo, but with so many good fights this weekend, I don’t even have to talk about those.

The three events heralded some fantastic finishes and, as is my job, I’m going to break down a couple of them with you now.

Gunnar Nelson Chokes Out Omari Akhmedov

Gunnar Nelson returned to the cage against the latest in a streak of scary Russian fighters to join the UFC, Omari Akhmedov. The two came out and circled the cage, with Nelson in his usual upright karate stance.

When Nelson looked as though he was ready to step in, Akhmedov swung a couple of long, wild bombs which narrowly missed the mark. The tension was incredible in the O2 Arena as Nelson looked for his way in, but was ever conscious of the possibility of getting starched.

Suddenly, Nelson was all up on his man. Showing beautifully the competition karate skill of getting across the floor as quickly as possible, Nelson was in like a bolt with a southpaw left straight on the nose, which bundled Akhmedov to the floor as Nelson immediately moved to mount. Whether it was a takedown or a knockdown as unclear (Nelson said afterward he wasn’t sure, he thought he “punched him down”), but a stiff punch up the bracket acts as a wonderful lubricant to getting the fight to the floor regardless.

Punch and clutch is an expression I often use. It’s something good boxers picked up on way back, but if you clinch immediately after throwing a power punch, all the repercussions of missing that power punch disappear. You will see Floyd Mayweather lead with left hooks or right straights, then immediately tie up in almost all of his fights.

If more quality grapplers can start doing it, they’ll save themselves a lot of trouble with the old, predictable jab ‘n’ shoot.

What happened once the fight hit the ground was exactly what you would expect if you give a savvy Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert the mount just a minute into the round. Nelson didn’t swing wild while Akhmedov grabbed around Nelson’s waist and buried his head in Nelson’s belly, as we so frequently see in MMA. Nelson maintained the mount, chilled out there, and every time the opportunity arose, he dropped a sharp elbow on Akhmedov‘s face. By three minutes in Akhmedov was bleeding all over the shop.

Toward the end of the round, Akhmedov managed to kick Nelson briefly back to guard. Nelson passed and moved to knee on belly, which is typically a position men like Marcelo Garcia use to encourage movement from the man on the bottom. As Akhmedov tried to turn into Nelson, Nelson snuck in the guillotine, fell to his back and finished. Again, a savvy move to wait until near the end of the round to attempt the submission.

If Nelson had attempted the same setup and submission from the two-minute mark, or when he first got the knee on belly briefly off the takedown, then failed to finish it, he would have been underneath his opponent for three more minutes. Leaving it to the last minute of the round meant that even if Akhmedov popped out of the guillotine, Nelson could survive the round without much damage on the bottom.

Canelo Alvarez beats Alfredo Angulo

Canelo Alvarez rebounded from his loss to Floyd Mayweather by doing away with Alfredo Angulo in the tenth round. Alvarez, while he has mainly beaten up old men, is one of the more creative offensive fighters in the world. Leading with right hooks into jabs, working the body and the head, and lifting Angulo into the path of his left hook repeatedly, Alvarez worked his man over.

The fight was called off when Angulo seemed unable to get away from punches which Alvarez was very clearly telegraphing well in advance and loading up on. The final punch was a powerful lead uppercut. Typically, the lead uppercut is used to raise the head in hopes of landing a nice rear straight, but against an opponent whose head is in front of his hips, it can be a terrifying power punch.

Here’s the finish:

As much of a mess as boxing is nowadays, Canelo is an exciting fighter to watch.

Alexander Gustafsson Starches Jimi Manuwa

The main event of UFC London proved to be the best finish of the night. While the match was always something of a place holder to keep Alexander Gustafsson active while Jon Jones defends his title once more before a rematch, Jimi Manuwa was never a safe opponent. Manuwa hits hard, and he found the mark on Gustafsson a couple of times early.

What surprised me about this performance was Gustafsson‘s accuracy. Ordinarily, Gustafsson will throw four or five faked jabs to land a good low kick. Against Manuwa, the first jabs Gustafsson threw landed square on the nose of his British opponent.

After a round on the ground, where Gustafsson tested the idea that he could simply steamroll Manuwa on the ground, the fight remained on the feet in the second round. In the second round, however, Manuwa hit Gustafsson with a hard shot, and Gustafsson rose to the occasion. Here’s how I reacted from ringside.

Gustafsson moved in with a jab and his long right uppercut along the fence, but quickly got the double collar tie. While Manuwa was still thinking about swinging, Gustafsson snapped him down into a knee. A couple of uppercuts ushered Manuwa to the canvas, and a couple of nasty hammer fists sealed the deal.

The move from striking range to the double collar tie was a smart one by Gustafsson. He threatened the takedown, he negated Manuwa’s striking power in the open and he exploited his height advantage by looking to land a standing knee to the head. Semmy Schilt would have been proud.

Gustafsson could have got this done at range—and he could have kept taking it back to the ground—but he got into a fight, and he got it done in the most entertaining fashion we could have hoped for. A great performance from the young Swede, who is arguably Europe’s best active fighter.

Andy Ristie Falls to Davit Kiria

Those of you who regularly read my columns will know how highly I hold Andy Ristie. The Dutch-Surinamese kickboxer is one of the finest offensive minds in the game. His combinations are an incredible mix of unorthodox switch-hittery, muay thai marching and leg feints and Dutch style punching, while retracting the kicking leg.

Ristie‘s bizarre style allowed him to topple the greatest defensive fighter in the kickboxing game in Giorgio Petrosyan last year in a meeting of immovable object and irresistible force.

Clearly the best lightweight in the world, Ristie was defending his title for the first time at GLORY 14 on Saturday. His opponent, Davit Kiria, had other ideas.

The first four rounds were all Ristie. He hammered the karateka with body shots and knees in combination. Ristie lashed out like an octopus playing the drums, and Kiria looked in trouble when a left high knee caught him coming in and put him on the canvas.

In the fifth round, however, the Georgian’s toughness paid off, as he caught Ristie with a left hook in close. Ristie was put down three times (perhaps one more time than necessary, as he didn’t seem to know where he was after the second knockdown) and the bout was called off.

In his post fight interview, Kiria struggled to hold back the sobs of joy after winning a world title. The manner in which he pushed through and won it had many of us close to joining him, I am sure.

Pick up Jack’s eBooks Advanced Striking and Elementary Striking from his blog, Fights Gone By. Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic in 5 Moments

This weekend, Glory 14 will take place in Zagreb, Croatia, and the card will be headlined by a bout between Remy Bonjasky and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic. This intriguing match caps off a great card, which also features Glory’s middleweight grand prix an…

The bout between Cro Cop and Bonjasky is a rematch of their 2002 meeting, where Filipovic (who is considered a constant underachiever in kickboxing) became only the second man to stop Bonjasky.

Yes, as far removed as he is from his best days, Cro Cop was really something when he was on his game. Few fighters have experienced the kind of fall from grace that he has had or the crazy journey he has taken to get where he is now.

Since he is a favourite of both the MMA and kickboxing communities, I thought I would highlight some of his finer moments and perhaps introduce him to newer fans who perhaps never saw him at his best.

Igor Vovchanchyn: PRIDE Total Elimination 2003, August 10, 2003

Something that often draws comment from Cro Cop fans is the incredible learning curve that he faced in his MMA career. In his first 10 MMA fights, he faced (in addition to a couple of no-hopers):

Kazuyuki Fujita (twice)
Kazushi Sakuraba
Heath Herring
Igor Vovchanchyn
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

That is a murderers’ row. Fujita and Herring were solid heavyweights with strong wrestling backgrounds who would love to spoil the party of a one-dimensional. Kazushi Sakuraba was, as most of you know, the greatest fighter of his age, and though a middleweight, he would be a terrible matchup for any kickboxer who is transitioning to MMA.

Vovchanchyn, however, was the original kickboxer in MMA. In his youth, he won numerous one-night tournaments against men who were twice his size, and he was known for his terrifying punching power. In all seriousness, you would be hard-pressed to find a more devastating puncher in MMA today.

What Cro Cop showed against Vovchanchyn was his simple but polished double threat. Filipovic, at his best, had a venomous left straight. Now it wasn’t going to score him too many falling-tree, Vovchanchyn-style KOs, but it was wickedly fast and could outreach and cut inside of the Ukrainian’s wide, palm-down hooks.

The surprising number of broken orbital bones on Cro Cop’s record (Bob Sapp, Sakuraba, Josh Barnett) will also attest to his aim.

Now a double attack, just like in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, is the threat of two attacks that play off of each other. For a simple example, think of Sergei Kharitonov’s right hook to the body. He would throw it all fight until the opponent started to adjust, and then he’d throw a right hook upstairs and score the knockout.

Bringing the right hand into action against Cro Cop’s left straight would leave an opponent with nothing in the way of the ever-present threat of a left high kick. And to attempt to slip the left straight was to do a nose dive into a shin.

Vovchanchyn‘s right hand came in, and before he could get it back into position, Cro Cop’s left shin smashed through the few inches of extra swing that the Ukrainian had given him.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: PRIDE Final Conflict 2003, November 9, 2003

After rocketing his way through two ranked heavyweights in Herring and Vovchanchyn, Cro Cop met the No. 2 heavyweight in the world, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, in what was considered to be the fight of the year.

Again, that simple double threat was on display. Nogueira had his hand braced well away from his head in case of a high kick. Cro Cop would slap a light high kick against it and then throw a left straight inside of it.

Through the first round, Filipovic was able to sprawl on Nogueira with ease and alternated between bloodying the Brazilian up with the left straight and wearing him down with hard body kicks.

Bas Rutten summed up the early going: “He’s taking him apart.”

This was Filipovic at his best: on the balls of his feet, fighting on a hair trigger. We can talk about elite kickboxing technique all day, but Filipovic was a speed fighter and a movement fighter. When those elements disappeared later on, he started to look awful.

The first round ended as Cro Cop sneaked in a glancing high kick over Nogueira’s right hand (which was dropping due to body kicks). Nogueira fell to the mat, and Cro Cop chased him with a punch as the bell sounded, which effectively saved the Brazilian.

In the second round, however, he managed to take down Cro Cop. Here was where the Croatian’s inexperience showed through, as Nogueira quickly mounted him and began punching. Cro Cop returned fire from the bottom before attempting to bridge over, whereupon Nogueira caught a beautiful armbar.

This losing effort summed up the problem that Cro Cop was going to face throughout his career. He was always incredible but tended to fall at the last hurdle.

Mark Coleman: PRIDE 29, February 20, 2005

Filipovic‘s takedown defence was remarkable for any fighter, not just a kickboxer. A year and change after Nogueira submitted him, Cro Cop was sprawling on Kevin Randleman and Mark Coleman (both impressive takedown artists) in back-to-back fights.

There’s not much to say about the bout with Coleman, because it was so horribly one-sided. Once Coleman realized he couldn’t ground Cro Cop, he began to rush his shots more and more, making it easier and easier for Filipovic to see them coming.

Here’s a quick highlight of the bout, which Cro Cop won in the first round:

2006 PRIDE Open-Weight Grand Prix

The great tragedy of Cro Cop’s career was that despite being so feared in his division and being considered one of the top three heavyweights in the world, he had never succeeded in winning a title. He had never won a K-1 Grand Prix in kickboxing or a belt in PRIDE. That is, until the PRIDE 2006 Open -Weight Grand Prix.

Whereas Fedor Emelianenko usually won the open-weight grands prix (and indeed, everything else), in 2006 he was forced out with one of the hand injuries that plagued his career. Competing in his place was PRIDE middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva.

The semifinals and finals of the tournament were fought in one night at PRIDE Final Conflict Absolute. Cro Cop met Wanderlei Silva in the semis, while Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira met Josh Barnett. Barnett ground his way past Nogueira, and Cro Cop destroyed Silva, setting up a Cro Cop vs. Barnett finale.

Filipovic had already fought and beaten Barnett twice. The American simply struggled to take Cro Cop down and got roughed up in the clinch as a result. While attacking from Barnett’s guard, Cro Cop was able to injure Barnett’s orbital bone, and the bout was waved off.

Cro Cop had finally won his first belt, and he cried the manliest tears ever seen in MMA.

K-1 Grand Prix 2012

What followed was a horrible decline. Cro Cop’s feet had been slowing for a while, and his path through the 2006 Open-Weight Grand Prix was fortunate in that he got the undersized and wild Silva and then a tired Barnett, who didn’t have the tools to do much.

Once he moved to the UFC, Cro Cop began to look worse and worse. Knockout losses and scraped wins over no-namers were heartbreaking to watch. Against Roy Nelson in his last UFC bout in October 2011, Filipovic looked the best on his feet that he had in years. He outmoved and countered Nelson at every turn, but his chin just couldn’t hold up to even the lighter blows.

It was clear that he had little left to offer the MMA world.

When he announced his return to kickboxing, most people were dubious, but he shocked everyone by stringing together a good streak of wins. Aided by larger gloves, the ability to cover up and referees who refuse to penalize him for holding and hitting, Cro Cop has been surprisingly competitive.

In 2013, at the strangely named 2012 K-1 Grand Prix, the fates finally conspired to bring us the feel-good story of the decade in combat sports. K-1 was a shell of its former self, and most of the real kickboxing talent had been pilfered by Glory, but K-1 decided to throw money at another grand prix—this time in Zagreb, Croatia.

Don’t be fooled by the hosting of the event in Zagreb. While the field wasn’t especially strong, Badr Hari was there. As hit-and-miss as he is, it was hard to see him struggling with what Filipovic had become. But fate had other ideas. In beating Zabit Samedov, Hari injured himself and was forced to withdraw from the tournament.

Through some generous judging and some solid fighting, Cro Cop found himself in the final against Ismael Londt. Cro Cop took the fight to the younger man time and again, and Londt found success by simply raising his knee to wind Filipovic each time he stepped in.

Cro Cop began to slow. Then, this happened:

Everyone lost their minds. Londt got up, but Cro Cop took the decision. He had finally won a K-1 grand prix. Sure, none of the greats were in there, but he did it in front of his home crowd, and he landed his legendary high kick while doing so.

My readers already know that I’m a cynic. I begrudge nonsense fights, mismatches and bad decisions. But even I felt good for Filipovic that night. It took me back to 2005 and to the Cro Cop of old.

And more importantly, it gave him the title to reaffirm what many of us already knew: He was a truly great fighter.

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Dong Hyun Kim: A Step Backward?

On Saturday, Dong Hyun Kim starched John Hathaway in Macau at The Ultimate Fighter: China finale. Landing a brutal spinning elbow as Hathaway came in, Kim recorded only the third finish by spinning arm strike in UFC history.

Some are impressed, s…

On Saturday, Dong Hyun Kim starched John Hathaway in Macau at The Ultimate Fighter: China finale. Landing a brutal spinning elbow as Hathaway came in, Kim recorded only the third finish by spinning arm strike in UFC history.

Some are impressed, some are saying he deserves a real contender, and some are calling for a title shot. Here’s what stood out to me about Kim vs. Hathaway.

The first thing to get out of the way is that this was as close to a gimme match as you are going to see in the UFC. Hathaway had been out for more than a year and wasn’t rated particularly highly before that. Kim had just knocked out Erick Silva and secured the No. 11 rank in the UFC’s welterweight division.

The idea was, quite obviously, to have a high-profile Asian star win in the main event as the UFC tries to cement itself in China.

Now props are due to both men. Hathaway put up a far better fight than expected after his lengthy time away from the cage. And Kim, who could probably have gotten away with his usual grinding clinch-and-top-control business, was clearly swinging for a knockout.

The problem with his stand-up, which I touched on last week, is that he will take a wild idea like, “Hey, not enough guys throw crane kicks” and then run it into the ground by throwing crane kicks over and over again with no setup whatsoever. He showed the same thing with his spinning backfists against Silva, and it was even more obvious against Hathaway.

That Kim actually landed his crane kick on Sean Pierson and his spinning back elbow on Hathaway is more a bad reflection on his opponents’ awareness than it is on any sign of improved striking from the Korean. Plenty of folks have commended him for taking more risks on the feet, but these are the kind of risks that stifle middling fighters but will exacerbate problems for Kim against elite competition.

If you’re throwing crane kicks (a back-leg feint into a front-leg jumping kick), and you haven’t thrown a meaningful back-leg kick all fight, why on earth would it work as a feint in the way it is intended to?

Similarly, if you throw spinning backfists constantly without moving the opponent toward the fence in order to take away the option to move back or trying to time him coming in, you’re effectively just swinging your arms and hoping that the opponent will get in the way.

If he gets knocked out, it’s his own fault.

Of course, eventually Hathaway did step in while Kim was spinning, and it provided an incredible highlight-reel knockout. But would that happen against any top-tier welterweight striker?

I find it best when evaluating Kim’s progress to ask: How would Carlos Condit deal with that?

Now for those of you who don’t remember, Condit pulverized Kim at UFC 132. The Korean did what he usually does; he moved in behind punches, with his chin out, and tried to get Condit into the clinch along the fence.

Each time Kim stepped in, Condit smacked him right on the chin. When Kim took a step back, Condit kicked him. When Kim got too close to the fence, Condit leaped in with a knee and knocked Kim unconscious.

That is an elite fighter: one who punishes mistakes and takes advantage of openings. Sure, it’s exciting to get wild and risk missing a swinging strike. But the best guys—and those are the guys whom Kim should be fighting from here on out—will not let a fighter get away with discarding minor advantages at every turn.

Taking more risks on the feet was never something that Kim needed to do; his sloppiness on the way in when he wasn’t going wild got him into trouble against Condit. The kind of display he put on against Hathaway would get him beaten up very quickly against Condit or Martin Kampmann.

Here’s the sort of thing I’m talking about. Kim swings long and wild, because that’s how he thinks he can best put power on a punch; he misses and allows Hathaway to push him against the fence.

From there, Condit or Kampmann would be working with elbows and knees or breaking free to attempt some crazy flying knee or front kick along the fence. Johny Hendricks or Robbie Lawler would be pushing off and flurrying with heavy punching combinations.

And of course, Nick Diaz eats people up against the fence.

Really, most of what Kim did was walk forward—with his head well forward of his hips—swing wild and eat punches. His ring craft also looked atrocious as he followed Hathaway around the cage, turning to chase Hathaway in whichever direction the Brit chose to lead.

Each time Kim ate a handful of punches, he would wave Hathaway on and go right back to eating more.

There seems to be confusion over the difference between a good fight and a good showing. Gilbert Melendez vs. Diego Sanchez was a good fight, but it was a horrible showing by “El Nino.” Often when two mismatched fighters meet, it will be a good fight because the better fighter puts on a horrible performance.

Likewise, this was a good fight because it was wild and back-and-forth. It had a brilliant finish, but it was not a good showing by either man.

The lesson that Kim should have taken away from his bout with Silva was that his constant pressure and forcing his way to the clinch coaxed Silva into the knockout. The Brazilian was forced to drop his hands and was exhausted by constantly trying to fight off the clinch.

Yet even when Kim fought at an incredible pace, barely being in the striking zone between each clinch, he still almost got knocked out by Silva on the way in.

However, the lesson that Kim has decided to take away from that bout seems to be that he has great power and should try swinging at people’s heads more often.

There’s nothing sadder than a grappler who finds out he has power and then forgets everything else. That might be what is unfolding in front of our eyes.

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Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson: What Is the Secret of His Power?

Perhaps the Wonderboy hype was premature when he knocked out Dan Stittgen and signed to fight Matt Brown. Since losing to Brown, however, Thompson has put together three solid wins against opponents who have their own Wikipedia pages (always a solid me…

Today I wanted to take a very brief look at some of the neater tricks which Thompson has shown throughout both his kickboxing and MMA careers.

The Wonderboy Kick

I am dubbing this kick the Wonderboy Kick both for lack of a better name and because Thompson uses it so frequently. Really it’s just a rear-leg round kick, but there’s something which makes it a little unique in Thompson’s application.

Thompson will throw a 1-2 to get his opponent moving. Quite often the opponent will circle past his right straight, thinking they are safe. Here is where the Wonderboy Kick comes in.

Rather than throwing a 1-2 and a right high kick, Thompson throws a 1-2, then throws his right-leg high kick at almost 90 degrees to his initial angle of attack.

Ordinarily when throwing a high kick, you will pivot on your standing leg as you throw the kick. High kickers will normally pivot their standing leg as far as possible so that it points almost behind them. Thompson’s kick, 90 degrees to his right, cuts down on the distance of the kick and means that he only needs to make half the pivot on his standing leg to get into optimum kicking position.

Many of you will remember Thompson using this kick to starch Dan Stittgen in his UFC debut.

He also used it in the WCL to knock out James DeCore, and it has appeared plenty of times in his fights if he can get his opponent circling towards it.

Here is Thompson desperately trying to get his opponent to circle into the kick by exaggeratedly cutting off the ring and leaving openings to circle out in that direction.

Thompson’s opponent seemed smart enough to not circle into Thompson’s well-known right leg, so Thompson simply brought the Brazilian kick to him anyway.

The Wheel Kick and the Hook Kick

Of course, a lot of the time his opponents aren’t daft enough to circle into his trademark right leg. Then he can bring it round and try to wheel kick them.

The wheel kick has proven quite important to Thompson’s game, however. He doesn’t kick with his left leg nearly so often or so well as he does with his right leg. Consequently he will use his right leg to provide a threat from both sides.

In that match with James DeCore, Thompson misses a wheel kick but follows with a hard straight. The standard procedure for dealing with spinning kicks is to let them fall short and move in through the wake, hopefully catching the opponent while they are recovering. Thompson obviously expected this as he missed his wheel kick and landed in perfect position to counter punch.

Here’s an effective one from Thompson’s bout with Jeremy Joles.

And here’s a hook kick. A tricky kick in terms of angle, but one which generally lacks the power of other kicks because of the limited hip movement involved in the kick.

While we are seeing more hook kicks and wheel kicks coming into MMA —as we should, even the threat of them opens up targets for more orthodox techniques—the danger of the opponent stepping in during one is still ever present.

For an example of that look at Decare missing a kick in the bout with Thompson, putting him in terrible position. All Thompson would need to do was catch the leg and that is an assured takedown, and probably straight into side control.

There’s a ton more stuff we could talk about with Thompson. His switching of stances to land his right-side kick, his low hands to 1-2, his fake side kick to left straight, and so on. But remembering the Matt Brown fight, let’s not get carried away just yet. Thompson is back on track, and that is exciting enough as it is.

Pick up Jack’s eBooks Advanced Striking and Elementary Striking from his blog, Fights Gone By. Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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Maia vs. MacDonald: The Full Breakdown

UFC 170 was a fairly bland card in terms of star power Saturday night from Las Vegas. It wasn’t helped by the last-minute replacement of Rashad Evans by Patrick Cummins and the attempts to create a narrative around that mismatch. Despite the one-minute…

The true fight of the night, and one which was a treat on all levels, was Demian Maia vs. Rory MacDonald.

Fork in the Road

Both Maia and MacDonald have been on the end of some pretty severe criticism in recent performances.

Maia was once the most feared grappler in MMA, but then he tried to round out his game and began to get involved in mediocre stand-up affairs. MacDonald, for his part, was considered the new breed: an all around killer, but his snoozefest against Jake Ellenberger turned that around over night.

MacDonald suffered exactly the same problem as his stablemate, Georges St. Pierre. His jab worked so well that once it was removed, by meeting a southpaw, he had no other weapons. Robbie Lawler beat him up and knocked him down in their match in November, and MacDonald was out of title contention and back to the drawing board.

At UFC 170, despite their fight providing a clear-cut winner, we got to see both men returning to what made them so great.

The Leg Weave/Dope Mount

Maia showed immediately that he is still the premier grappler in mixed martial arts as he quickly took down MacDonald with a single leg. MacDonald showed that tendency we have been seeing from wrestlers in recent months to use butterfly guard, because of the opportunities it can allow to scramble back up to the feet.

What Maia did so masterfully on the ground was to constantly look to remove one of MacDonald’s hooks, taking away a good deal of control from MacDonald.

Once he had achieved this, Maia would look to use a hip switch to drive his knee across the middle of MacDonald’s guard and achieve a leg weave position. This position is variously called a smash pass, a leg weave, dope mount or even Penn mount, after B.J. Penn who utilized it a great deal against Jens Pulver, Takanori Gomi and others.

Notice how as soon as MacDonald attempts to elevate Maia’s hips (and he can only do it on one side now, making it a predictable action), Maia switches his hips and drives that knee to the mat. This crosses MacDonald’s legs and flattens them. From here, Maia lands a nice knee and moves into mount.

Here’s Penn achieving the same position against Pulver in their first meeting.

You can also see Penn hitting variations of the pass in several clips in this excellent piece of guard-passing collection. Being Penn, he would often chill out in the dope mount and soften his opponent with punches to the face.

Shinya Aoki also uses this pass masterfully in MMA.

It was beautiful to watch Maia show the kind of high-level jiu-jitsu we have all wanted to see from him since he began his attempts to become a more rounded fighter and forgot his BJJ roots.

MacDonald showed the incredible value of the butterfly guard in the third round, however, as he used it to create space and get back to his feet.

More Than Just the Jab

MacDonald impressed enormously by showing that he has a full arsenal of strikes, not just the same flicking jab which he stuck to against Ellenberger. MacDonald’s jab, however, still found far more of a home than it should have against a southpaw.

Notice how low Maia carries his lead hand. It might not look particularly low, and if he were against a fighter in the same stance as him, it wouldn’t matter much, but that lead hand is the check to the jab in a southpaw vs. orthodox (open guard) engagement.

In an “open guard” battle it is supposed to be hard to land jabs. You are supposed to get “crossed swords” and check each other’s attempts at the jab. Maia’s low lead hand, which he carries that way in hopes of landing his money right hook when his opponent steps in, means that MacDonald was able to thread the needle with his jab all night.

It is fairly easy to parry a straight punch across the body or downward. It is much, much harder to parry a punch outward. Think the difference between your bench press and your back hand. It’s not impossible, some Thai’s set up knees by parrying jabs outward by reaching over the top of the punch, but few fighters can parry a punch with their parrying hand beginning inside their shoulder and finishing outside of it.

It’s just not how your body works.

If you can get a jab going effectively, even just flicking at the opponent’s lead-side eye, from open guard, it can start to cause overreactions in the opponent’s guard, which makes the rear hand straight easier to land. The Japanese boxer, Hozumi Hasegawa, was phenomenal at using a seemingly inconsequential southpaw jab to create a path for his left straight directly to the chin.

Even if Maia had seen the punches coming and tried to get his arm in the way or redirect MacDonald’s blow, he’d have had a hard old time doing it. If his hand had been up, level with his shoulder, checking MacDonald’s lead and denying it the straight path, the fight could have turned out differently.

Lawler more than demonstrated how difficult it can be to jab against a southpaw with a good defensive lead hand.

It was an absolute pleasure, however, to witness the return of MacDonald’s body kicks. MacDonald has all manner of kicks along all different trajectories. He doesn’t just show the same roundhouse kick with the top of the foot or shin again and again, as Maia often does. No, MacDonald with land with the shin, the top of the foot or the ball of the foot, and he will change target and angle.

And goodness did it work. By Round 2, Maia looked exhausted from some of the biting body kicks which MacDonald had thrown. Each time Maia’s head came forward, up came a front snap kick at his chin, or a roundhouse kick at his head. Every time these kicks forced Maia back upright it was back to the stiff one-two, or the kicks to the body.

You will always hear me saying how undervalued body strikes are in general in MMA—particularly long kicks to the body, and especially snap kicks with the ball of the foot. Watching MacDonald when he is on his game is akin to seeing what Katsunori Kikuno (click here to read my high opinions of that guy’s style) could do with a fully rounded skill set and some top-flight experience inside the UFC under his karate black belt.

Even though Maia was severely outmatched on the feet, he did show a neat counter kick which we rarely see in MMA. That is to kick the standing leg underneath an opponent’s kick. The best consistent example of this counter throughout a fight is, of course, Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic.

Whether you cared about the main and co-main event or not, Maia vs. MacDonald is worth catching up on because it provided a technical chess match and a blood-and-guts battle.

Pick up Jack’s eBooks Advanced Striking and Elementary Striking from his blog, Fights Gone By. Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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