Striking for MMA

Stokes mentioned recently about the inappropriate use of boxing in the UFC (Griffin Vs. Jardine) with the basic crux being that at a high level of MMA competition that "pure" boxing has some issues being applied to MMA. (Not knocking boxing its an amazing delivery system). Just making the point that some of its fundamentals are less applicable to a situation where shots, clinch, knees and kicks are in play

Is the issue that many high level striking coaches are "pure" strikers rather than MMA strikers and therefore are teaching the sport of boxing or muay thai rather than a modified MMA version? So will it take another generation of MMA strikers becoming coaches and adapting their games to stop this? Or is this a problem that will require a conscious effort to iron out?


To reiterate it's only a massive issue at the upper echelons because the majority of us could only really improve by training "pure" boxing/MT.

Roper

I think its more of a case that the boxing you see in MMA right now just isn't good boxing. I get the impression that most guys like the idea of standing and trading. Think Evan Tanner a while back when he fought Franklin. I don't think he attempted a takedown that whole fight and it was a rubbish boxing match. I don't think it helps too much when the commentary team don't know all that much about boxing either, so you hear things like "crisp boxing skills" when all the guy is doing is throwing a jab.

Taiwan-Evo

Personally I think mma is a style of its own.I will probably get blasted by a lot of people that it is ridiculous because MMA just means mixed martial arts and is a mix of different styles competing or whatever.
But in my opinion you have to build a game that is suitable for mma. no one particular style will work without being modified to counter other styles. So you end up with a hybrid style.

Marty Mc

i was just thinking about this one myself...... i think most good boxing/ kickboxing coaches would be disapointed by the technique used by some of the fighters.

But then again mma aint boxing, its one part of an intrigate puzzle which is the well rounded fighter. Its a means for a fighter to impose his game on a particular opponent ie: - A grappler to stand and 'bang' thus luring his opponent into a false sense of security so to get the exchanges going and attain the takedown and impose his very strong grappling game.

I think at some stage that every fighter will try and test himself at every range in an attempt to become the best that they can ala Evan Tanner standing 'banging' when everyone knows his clinch is his strongest asset.

A question, what adjustments would need to be made to a strikers arsenal to equipt him for mma fighting. Obviously the stance but any other glaringly obvious technique changes????

Millionaire

As a kickboxer and now Thai, but never having done MMA, I would guess if I applied my striking as I do now, I would get taking to ground very easy! ( the ground is a place I do not want to be).

I was at a fight the other night, with both muay thai and boxing on the card. Its been years since I was at a live western boxing fight, and the first thing I noticed, was how "wide" the stance was (as in lenght btwn lead and rear foot). 1st thing that came into my head, was boxer was 100% open for a good leg sweep, with a wide stance like that(thats all the boxers on the card, I am not refering to just one guy). His lead leg was "offered on a plate" for a sweep. when back in dublin in my kickboxing club, anyone with a stance that wide would be on their butts in seconds.

So point is I guess, if one adopted the same stance to box in an MMA event, he would be even more open for a take down.

Taiwan-Evo

I think bobbing and weaving for boxers is probably not a good habit to get into. I think for thai or kickboxing in mma you have to be even more aware of returning your leg back quicker. I think you see a lot more power in thai boxing/kickboxing events cause they can follow through with the power without worrying about the leg grab or takedown. Obviously kicks thrown with more caution as the grappler is waiting for the kick to takedown. Thai clinch is great but against a good greco roman wrestler you may get into some problems.

FiannaGym.com

columok wrote:

Stokes mentioned...

Stokes says a lot of things.

I think, Chuck, Wand and Gomi have all got great MMA striking. It's easy to pick holes in their "stand-up" from a clinical position but in reality, in the ring or cage, these guys land lots of hard shots without putting themselves in too much danger. And that is what makes a good fighter, in what ever range... The ability to attack without opening yourself you too much.

Judging MMA striking on values from boxing is silly, it's like a basketball player critisizing GAA "dribbling". At least, that's what I think.

Peace

Dragan

Personally I feel there is a lot of pressure on fighters to stand and trade. "It's exciting". I know this comes up every now and then but the UFC crowd will sit there and boo you for a boring fight, or a fight that they don't understand! It's not enough to win, you need to win in an exciting manner and get the crowd behind you if you want to get booked again.

Look at Pe De Pano…..one fight he won, one fight he lost in a boring manner and he got fed to Arlovski.

Colm_OReilly

Everyone loves Stokes...

unlike the other members of Fianna

cowzerp

Millionaire wrote:

I was at a fight the other night, with both muay thai and boxing on the card. Its been years since I was at a live western boxing fight, and the first thing I noticed, was how "wide" the stance was (as in lenght btwn lead and rear foot). 1st thing that came into my head, was boxer was 100% open for a good leg sweep, with a wide stance like that(thats all the boxers on the card, I am not refering to just one guy). His lead leg was "offered on a plate" for a sweep. when back in dublin in my kickboxing club, anyone with a stance that wide would be on their butts in seconds.

So point is I guess, if one adopted the same stance to box in an MMA event, he would be even more open for a take down.

O'k in theory this is true/ if a thai fighter takes up a boxing stance he will be open for a sweep-but boxers rely more on fast footwork and in this stance can move very quickly in and out of range, this is very natural to a boxer-chuck stands like this almost all the time but is waiting on takedown attempts so he can sprawl or simply skip away-this is an aggressive stance like the open guard compared to the closed guard.

punching technique is quite poor in mma because barely any boxers do it and most of the learned punches come from martial arts coaches rather than boxing coaches-i believe as mma grows this will change and boxing coaches will be used more. as now that fighters are learning to defend takedowns punches will become the weapon of choice-this is already starting to happen, kicks make stand up fighters vunerable to takedowns and are been used less everytime i see fights. mma is unique but will always take skills from specialist sports like boxing judo bjj and thai-thats mma.

paul moran

Just my tupenny bit,

If you watched Ricky Hattons recent fight (not his greatest perfomance) you will see how well he uses the angles in the 1st four rounds, he was hitting and moving to the side, grabbing and turning his opponent so well. He barely got hit during the first period!

After he felt the power and strength of urango he was hitting and clinching. Now I don't fight MMA but it seems to me that alot (not all) of the boxing skills are of a "rock'em sock'em" kind of variety which has it's place but incorporated with a bit more angled movement might be more effective?!?!? Ala Anderson Silva and Liddell.

Paul