Tim Boetsch and the Jack Johnson Uppercut

Hey guys, I'm a little late uploading this one here, been doing a lot of work on HeadKickLegend lately in the hopes of getting more publicity and a staff writer's job with a major MMA website. This piece has won some attention lately, I banged it out shortly after UFC 144 when I noticed a similarity between Boetsch's punches and a picture of Jack Johnson I happened to have seen a couple of days earlier.

This piece was even brought up to Boetsch on the air by legendary MMA commentator, pundit and journalist Mauro Ranallo. Catch the show here: http://podcasts.thescore.com/episodes/the-mma-show-feb-29

And the mention at around the 15:50 mark!

Last night, Tim Boetsch came back from being significant outstruck by the rangey jab of the taller, bulkier Yushin Okami. Okami had been utilizing a southpaw jab all night, something which typically only works for truly great strikers or against pretty mediocre ones. Okami occasionally ate a heavy right hook counter to his continuous jabbing efforts, but things looked grim for Boetsch as Okami started mixing in heavy body kicks. Then, once the Japanese middleweight had stunned Boetsch on the feet and was failing to land through Boetsch's covering up, Okami threw some beautiful hooks to the body. The sign of an intelligent fighter is to take all the free body shots your opponent lets you while he is covering his head (something Kid Yamamoto failed to do when he had Vaughn Lee hurt earlier in the night.

Out of seemingly nowhere however, Boetsch stunned the bigger, sharper Okami and proceeded to provide a terrific finish, laying the Japanese fighter out against the fence. While for the most part Boetsch was significantly outstruck, he did show a brilliant infighting technique in finishing the fight. Okami is an amazing fighter when he turns to blanket mode - he can smother his opponents without allowing them to get anything off, and it was this ability to smother an opponent which Boetsch had to navigate his way around while he had Okami wobbling. While Okami tried - like a smart fighter should - to tie his foe up, Boetsch cross-faced Okami and utilized a technique which hasn't been seen much in boxing for many years; the infighting uppercut made famous by Jack Johnson.










Jack Johnson was the first black heavyweight champion of the world and an incredibly controversial figure both inside and outside of the ring. He was known as a defensive genius and this was largely due to his ability to tie his opponents up at will and do damage there. As much a wrestler as a pure boxer, he used underhooks, headfighting and bicep control to destroy Jim Jeffries - undefeated heavyweight champion of the world and a man who enlisted Frank Gotch and Farmer Burns as wrestling sparring partners in his camps. Both Johnson and Jeffries understood the value of wrestling to a fighter. Johnson's money punch was an uppercut from infighting range while holding his opponent just as Boetsch did. Notice how Boetsch turns his hips so far that it looks as it he is going to throw it perpendicular to Okami. Now see this nicely posed photograph of Johnson demonstrating his technique for the San Francisco Call during the build up to his fight with Stanley Ketchel.



The author feels that this technique, once it is fully recognized will be a powerful weapon for sprawl and brawlers. By turning the hips all the way through as if to throw the punch to someone standing on the opposite side of ones body it is possible to get an incredibly powerful uppercut in a much tighter space than if one were throwing it square on to the opponent. Mark Hunt knocked out Chris Tuchscherer with this same technique in a very short space while Chris was shooting in on him last year.



Johnson was an absolute master at these short range, full body uppercuts and it is highly recommended that you watch his videos - the man was dirty boxing in an era of swingers. Johnson was so powerful in the clinch that he often literally held his opponents up when they were about to fall simply so that they didn't get away with an 8 count break from his assault. Here is a video of his destruction of Tommy Burns, Johnson really hits his stride against the Canadian at around the 1:55 mark. Brutal uppercuts from then on.

Jack Johnson and many of his slickest tricks will be examined in detail in my upcoming ebook - "Tactics of Kickboxing, Boxing and MMA Masters". Keep your eyes peeled for more info!

UFC 144: Misconceptions About Yamamoto and Gomi

As a youngster growing up on a healthy diet of Bruce Lee and MMA the PRIDE Fighting Championship, to me, was the greatest show on earth. To my mind the UFC, Strikeforce and DREAM have yet to produce anything close to the quality and spectacle of the best PRIDE shows. Wanderlei Silva's undefeated streak of half a decade, that Fedor guy's emergence from some backwater mining town in Russia to make Nogueira look like an amateur not once but three times, Chuck Liddell and Quinton Jackson's tear up for a chance at the Middleweight crown.


There were so many wonderful moments in PRIDE and the Japanese culture and love of spectacle simply made the show even more beautiful. These weren't "gladiators" going in there to "war" or "bang", these were superstars on the biggest MMA stage in the world. When Cro Cop wept after finally winning a belt in the 2006 Open Weight Grand Prix you'll be hard pressed to find a PRIDE fan who didn't choke up too, and when Hidehiko Yoshida, an ageing Judoka with little striking experience, stood in front of Wanderlei Silva for two matches and made the champion respect his punch not as a technical striker but as a man, we all understood the meaning of "Bushido" - the warrior way. But two men exemplified the ideal of bushido and the golden age of Japanese MMA for me, and both fought at UFC 144 looking like shadows of their former selves. Kid Yamamoto and Takanori Gomi.


Kid Yamamoto: The Meaning of Pound for Pound


Kid Yamamoto spent his entire career up to 2007 fighting at lightweight despite being able to limbo under the 135lbs bar with ease. He fought at 155lbs because he wanted a belt and respect, and he damn sure got it. Despite giving up 10 - 20lbs to his opponents who cut weight to make 155, Yamamoto stopped Royler Gracie and Caol Uno in one night, then went on to be the first and only MMA fighter to stop Japanese MMA legend, Genki Sudo - whose list of submissions includes Mike Thomas Brown and Nate Marquadt. Kid was my idol, and when I finally got out of school I went to Japan with high hopes of meeting him. Being at his gym through his first legitimate MMA loss and and watching the man the Japanese called 'Son of God' clearly return to action without the abilites that he had carried through 18 MMA fights up to that point was heart-breaking.






I was only in my late teens at the time and I truly believed that Kid could return from repeated torn ACLs and two years out of action to beat any man DREAM placed him against. When he drew a match with Joe Warren I remember thinking that Warren would be stretchered out of the arena, but he took Kid down like no-one had in Kid's prime. Kid Yamamoto had stuffed Josh Thompson and out grappled Caol Uno and Jeff Curran but he was being laid on by Joe Warren. I wrote the loss off, like many other fans did, as ring rust. Kid immediately took a K-1 match against a relative nobody, Jae Hee Cheon.





The night before the fight Kid, his pad holder "Mr P" and myself were the only ones left in the gym and I hopped up on the ring apron to ask my idol in mangled Japanese "Which hand will you knock him out with?". He said "maybe this one" and raised his right fist. That right hook which had stopped so many men - in my heart I knew Kid would destroy this unknown Korean and get back on track. When Kid was knocked out while repeatedly swinging that right hook, I felt disappointment and confusion, but at eighteen years old I had been blinded from the obvious facts of a two year layoff and repeated knee injuries by my idolization of Yamamoto.


Misconceptions


Three years on, I can objectively look at Kid's fights and I never expect him to win anymore, his chin is shot, his right hook is still volatile but his stand up isn't as rounded as in his prime, and his knee injuries have taken their toll on his formerly world class wrestling. The one thing that I cannot tolerate though is people not giving him the place in MMA history that he has earned. I occasionally hear "yeah... then he came to the UFC and started losing" as if it were a step up in competition that began his downfall, but this is just flat out stupidity. Kid was 1-2 in his MMA career since his return before the UFC signed him and the win came over an irrelevant fighter brought in to get knocked out. To deny Yamamoto his place in MMA history as arguably the best featherweight who ever lived - having fought as one at lightweight and beating the best - is just ridiculous.


While I will always remain a fan and enjoy watching his old fights often, I think it is time for people to seperate the pre-2007 Yamamoto and today's Yamamoto. To pretend that they are the same is to discredit the brilliance of Yamamoto's 18 MMA matches and 3 K-1 performances before his injuries forced a hiatus the length of which few fighters have come back from. Objectively the Kid Yamamoto of 2006 could have beaten many of the top 10 fighters from bantamweight to lightweight in the world today and at least given the toughest challenge to the ones who could beat him.



Takanori Gomi: The Most Accomplished Lightweight in MMA History


Kid was a great fighter and I dreamed of having the strength which he carried in his prime, but the man I sought to emulate when I sparred was not Yamamoto, but Takanori Gomi. The Fireball Kid burst on to the main stage when Pride founded their Bushido event for lighter weight classes, going undefeated in his first ten fights with the biggest promotion in the world. Gomi had begun in Shooto as a one-dimensional ground and pounder. After destroying Japanese legend Rumina Sato he hit a brick wall when he suffered his first two career defeats against Joachim Hansen and BJ Penn. Despite Gomi's one dimensional nature at this stage, both matches were competitive and he even swept Penn from his back three times in the course of their fight - no small feet.





Gomi's real renaissance came after Penn exposed his inaccurate stand up. While Gomi remained pretty much a ground and pounder through his first three fights under the PRIDE banner, his stand up was improving all the time. When he was matched against lightweight striking expert and the only man to beat Penn at lightweight, Jens Pulver, he took him on in a pure striking match and won.


A right handed southpaw who could switch stances with ease Gomi threw every punch in the book. Long, smashing jabs hurt Pulver from a distance and twice Gomi threw a doubled up left hook, first to the body then immediately to the head of the wincing Pulver. Gomi's footwork, power and combinations looked incredible as he moved around Pulver with ease and landed the bigger, cleaner shots before putting Pulver away with a three punch combination.


From here on in Gomi had confidence in his stand up and began demolishing every man in the division with it. Despite BJ Penn's brilliance he never had the string of victories at lightweight that Gomi achieved during this time. Gomi almost entirely cleared out the lightweight division's top ten from 2004 - 2006, a feat which no-one in any division has replicated.


Misconceptions


The most common misconception about Gomi is the same as Yamamoto - that a step up in competition saw him begin his decline. This is clearly untrue - coming in fat and unprepared for Nick Diaz, Gomi lost to the Stockton native then went on a 4 - 3 slide against average competition BEFORE coming to the UFC. Just as was the case with Yamamoto - the UFC picked him up not for his accomplishments, but simply to stop a Japanese promotion such as Dream from using him to sell tickets, which is why Gomi and Kid are now on huge contracts but relegated to the undercard.


The second misconception about Gomi is that his power somehow "compensated" for a lack of skills in other areas. This is a myth which has been helped along by Joe Rogan basically saying it in the heat of the moment at UFC 144. Rogan did an excellent job that night, even giving props to Fedor which is a ballsy thing to do, but he was flat out wrong about Gomi.






Takanori Gomi was recognized for 2 years as having the finest boxing in MMA for a reason - take a look at any of his PRIDE striking performances, he pressures opponents, works the body and utilizes straights even more than the looping bombs that have come to be seen as his style. A look at his fight at UFC 144 will show you how far he has fallen and why. While Gomi always fought out of a crouch, he was one of the most mobile fighters at lightweight - cutting off the ring expertly - but now stands with his weight so far over his front foot that he cannot move freely. By leaning over his front foot his reach is also reduced.





Against Griffin and Ishida this style worked because Gomi needed to be quick to sprawl and their striking is inadequate, but against Forian, Nate Diaz and even Guida, his inability to move and having his face well forward of his waist cost Gomi big. What's more - though Gomi threw looping punches in his prime, they were never the laughably wide haymakers of today. He was a clinical boxer who threw power punches into holes. Gomi has become a parody of himself, accentuating the qualities that the fans used to characterize him, rather than the ones that cause his amazing success.


Both Gomi and Yamamoto seem destined to live out their days as also rans in the UFC, but the feats they achieved in their prime should not be overlooked. If we can recognize the rapid improvement of Mark Hunt and the decline of BJ Penn, lets not pretend that Yamamoto and Gomi are the same men they were when they set the world ablaze 6 years ago.






From: http://www.headkicklegend.com/2012/2/27/2827605/misconceptions-about-yamamoto-gomi

Upcoming Instructional Ebooks

Hey fight fans,

I just wanted to take a minute to share with you one of the upcoming projects here at Fights Gone By. I have received a great deal of positive feedback for my striking analysis, but it is often difficult to find pictures, videos and gifs to illustrate my meaning because of copyright disputes and so on.

I have resolved then to write a pair of instructional ebooks which I intend to sell through the site and eventually through Amazon or Apple's ebook store if they are successful. These will contain photographs taken specifically for the books, and hopefully the most detailed instruction available to date.

The first will be a comprehensive guide to striking from angles because it's a topic that simply hasn't been explored in any depth even by the great boxing, kickboxing and MMA guides out there.


The second will be an homage to K. V. Gradapalov's "Tactics of the Foreign Masters". It will feature breakdowns of the key techniques and strategies of some of the biggest names in modern boxing, kickboxing and MMA. I will also be including my translation of the original Russian book which helped me so much, as an appendix.

The two things I would like to know are:

1) Is there any interest in these books?


2) For the second book - which fighters' striking are you especially interested in? I have lots of ideas but would really like to aim for the ones with the most interest.


If you have a request or some advice, please go to http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/2/19/2810665/upcoming-instructional-books and add a comment!

Or shoot me an email at JackSlackMMA@gmail.com.

Cheers,
Jack

Out-Striking Frankie Edgar [HeadKickLegend Article]

Floyd Patterson, former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, decreed that to win in boxing all that is required is speed; speed of hands to win exchanges, and speed of foot to dictate when they take place. Frankie Edgar has both of these qualities and as the UFC lightweight division's "Cinderella man" upset BJ Penn twice before having two back and forth matches with the gigantic wrestler, Gray Maynard. Frankie Edgar is always entertaining to watch, but he is never going to be a big draw such as Anderson Silva or his predecessor, BJ Penn were - he is neither a submission finisher or a knockout artist. What is unique about Edgar, however, is his method of taking apart lightweights - exploiting the same lack of striking confidence and experience in the lightweight division that Bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz does in his own weightclass: a lack of ability to deal with lateral movement. Is it possible for Benson Henderson to out-strike Edgar? Of course. Will he actually out-strike Edgar? That remains to be seen, but the opportunities do exist to pick Edgar apart, it is whether Henderson's coaches have noticed this and whether he can focus when he is face to face with Edgar's perpetual motion style.

To understand how one might beat Edgar on the feet it is important to note his greatest successes and the times which he has shown weaknesses. In looking at Edgar's fight tape and record, nothing stands out more than his defeat of then number one lightweight in the world, BJ Penn. Penn was touted as a phenomenal boxer with a counter jab that jacked his opponent's head back, slick counter-punches and power which is rarely seen at lightweight. What Edgar exposed in Penn, however, was an inability to deal with lateral movement. Just as Nick Diaz does, Penn often stands in a boxing stance with his front foot turned in to maximize the reach on his dipping counter jab. This does, however mean that circling to the outside of this foot makes it hard for him to set up his punches and exposes the back of his leg for low kicks and his jaw for right hand leads. This circling is Edgar's modus operandi, and against Penn - whose dipping jab and emphasis on head movement is tailor made for inexperienced opponents who are willing to run straight at him, hoping to overwhelm him with combinations - it worked a treat. The fact that he kept having to turn and face Frankie meant that he was often unprepared from Frankie's own charging combinations.


Edgar's weakest showings on the feet have been his slow starts against Gray Maynard. Though traditionally not a big finisher (his only notable KO coming over himself), Maynard caught Frankie hard in the opening rounds of both of their title fights. In the first of these two title fights, at UFC 125, Edgar was caught with a slapping left hook, which did not carry a full rotation of Maynard's hips, but caught Edgar so off guard that it was enough to send him stumbling backward and almost cost him his hard earned UFC title. In watching this knockdown, Frankie is circling away from Maynard's left hand, then pauses as if he is ready to circle back the other way, in traditional Edgar fashion - unfortunately his right hand is down by his chest when he intends to change direction so he meets the full force of the left hook while leaning into it.



Edgar's habit of dropping his hands as he circles is a bad one, and while Penn was inadequate at chasing him, instead trying to bait him in, Maynard's aggressive pressure in the first rounds of both of their fights put him in position to punch into the space into which Edgar was moving. Circling into the left hook without adequate protection has produced some fantastic knockouts in the past, despite the hook lacking power it is hard to see coming and much of the force is provided by the opponent's movement into it. Here is Mitsuhiro Ishida, whose chin is fairly solid, circling into a short left hand of Hirota (the arm which Aoki went on to savagely break). Notice how Ishida is almost immediately out cold, and that the hole through which Hirota's punch entered was not especially large - Ishida could still be seen to have his hands up, but still lacked protection.



Continue reading this post »

UFC Japan: Has Rampage Evolved Too Far?

New piece at HeadKickLegend.com








In the sport of mixed martial arts we are constantly told that combatants are ever evolving, and in many cases this is far from true as grapplers continue to throw looping, straight armed swings at each other until one succumbs. In the case of Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson however, evolution has been a real process through his career and is recently costing him fights and fans. Beginning as a man obsessed with picking up his opponent and slamming him to the mat as many times as possible, Quinton then evolved a ground game like few others once he had slammed his opponents - led by brutal knees and elbows to the body, on top of this he added a dirty boxing game, then a devastating boxing skill set. Unfortunately in recent years, every single one of these abilities has decayed away from his game plan except for his boxing, and it is becoming tedious to watch, and predictable to fight against.





Since Quinton burst onto the major MMA scene against Kazushi Sakuraba in PRIDE FC he has attracted unparalleled media attention. An engaging personality with a self deprecating sense of humor, Rampage made no promises to grind out a win but simply came to put on a show. In his losing effort against the Sakuraba, Jackson slammed the Japanese legend from above the top rope to the mat multiple times before succumbing to the Gracie Hunter's superior submission game, but he had already found a fan following in this performance. Quinton followed this moral victory up with several wins on the PRIDE promotion's undercard against less than stellar fighters, before being matched against the declining but still frightening knockout artist, Igor Vovchanchyn. Vovchanchyn is a legend of the early era of MMA and despite being built for middleweight, spent the majority of his career fighting heavyweights and still having the power to knock them out while going backwards. In this match Quinton used his trademark slams, interspersed with great clinch work and a brutal body attack on the ground to stop the Ice Cold Ukrainian. Though the match provided some fantastic slams, it was Quinton's ground and pound that really took it's toll on Vovchanchyn.






Quinton's defining performances in PRIDE came against the powerful wrestler, Kevin Randleman, and the UFC representative in the PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix, Chuck Liddell. Randleman was supposed to be a far superior wrestler, but Rampage stuffed his shots and from the clinch brutalized his opponent with punches and knees, knocking him down with a body shot and finishing him, once again, with his brutal ground and pound. Against Liddell, Quinton exposed the Ice Man's inability to deal with well rounded fighters (having spent the past few years fighting almost exclusively grapplers), Quinton mixed in big punches on the feet to make Liddell raise his hands, thwarting the Ice Man's legendary takedown defence. Once again this fight was stopped by a brutal and relentless ground assault as Quinton bored the Ice Man down with knees and elbows to the body before Liddell's corner conceded defeat. 4 years later, when he came to the UFC, Jackson was nowhere near the dynamic all-arounder that he had been in his PRIDE hayday, relying almost entirely on punching and punching alone.

Continue reading this post »

2 New Articles

Hey everybody, got 2 new articles up over at HeadKickLegend.com. Less striking technique and more journalistic fight analysis this time. Stick Headkicklegend.com on your bookmarks folks, it's getting bigger and it's worth viewing regularly!

The Downfall of Diego Sanchez: http://www.headkicklegend.com/2012/2/12/2793194/the-downfall-of-diego-sanchez

and

The Trouble with Stefan Struve: http://www.headkicklegend.com/2012/2/14/2797207/the-trouble-with-stefan-struve

Southpaw Striking Guide Part 2: Unique Punches

Part 1 of this series which covers basic principles of fighting as or against a southpaw can be found at http://www.fightsgoneby.com/2012/01/southpaw-striking-guide-part-1-advanced.html


Once again, all of the techniques listed can be used either by a southpaw against an orthodox fighter OR vice versa, but will have little effect against a man in the same stance as you.

The southpaw vs orthodox or "open guard" position offers a completely different set of punches from the orthodox vs orthodox / southpaw vs southpaw or "closed guard" position and herein we'll take a look at some of the more exciting variations. One of the reasons for this variation in blows is that by having the right hand closer to the opponent and the left hand further away, his defenses must change from those he would use against an orthodox fighter to consider these or he can be picked apart through the holes.

Rear Hand Lead

The difficulty landing the southpaw jab means that on the flip side, one may land a powerful left straight through the same hole that would have existed or a weaker, shorter left hand jab by an orthodox fighter. The left straight is the staple of southpaw offense vs an orthodox fighter (and of course vice versa), and all advice to lead with a jab in such situations should be ignored, the rear straight is the best opening for such situations. A step outside the opponent's lead foot will make the rear hand straight sail between his hands, and if he gets a hand to it as he would a jab it will have too much momentum from the distance traveled and some or all of the force will get through. Here is a highlight of the most accomplished southpaw in boxing history, Manny Pacquiao, using this southpaw left straight as an orthodox fighter would use a counter jab - note how his step outside in many cases enables him to move away immediately after or puts him in a position to follow up.

Corkscrew Lead Uppercut

A trademark of Prince Naseem Hamed, this punch is criminally underused by southpaws. The corkscrew uppercut is so difficult to predict that once Hamed had begun to bore of training he smashed through half a dozen more opponents basically only using this punch. Hamed precedes his punch with a lean over his front leg, so that he can use his quadriceps to literally leap into the straight uppercut maneuver. If the opponent is actively attempting to handfight by reaching towards your hand (as discussed in part 1) the corkscrew uppercut can sneak in directly under his arm, straight to his chin. Additionally this technique can be used to hop offline and place a fighter in position to throw his rear straight immediately afterward, as demonstrated here by Naz.

While Hamed did use this technique from an orthodox vs orthodox situation, he found nowhere near the amount of success as when he used it as a southpaw. This technique is extremely useful for fighters who have a strong southpaw right hook as that fact will cause an opponent to raise his arm up from it's correct position, enabling the corkscrew uppercut to travel almost through his armpit. Wicky Akiyo has also had success with this technique when his money punch, the right hook, is not finding it's home. It also made an appearance in many of Marvin Hagler's fights.

Looping Lead Straight

Another one from Naseem Hamed's playbook. The act of squaring up so that a powerful straight can be thrown with the lead hand has been touched on by fighters as diverse as Bas Rutten and Archie Moore. Though those fighters are orthodox fighters, this technique is even more useful for southpaws as it can travel over the opponent's extended lead arm. Essentially an arcing straight which comes in over the top, it is a power punch which just as with the corkscrew uppercut can be thrown with just a twist of the hips or with the whole bodyweight leaping into it. Right handed southpaws particularly like to square up and throw a powerful straight with their lead hand. In this video of the Contender Asia finale, notice how at 3:16 Yodsanklai Fairtex begins with a corkscrew lead uppercut, then following a semi caught kick, drops the hardy Aussie, John Wayne Parr with a looping lead straight in a scramble.


The Southpaw Jab

The southpaw jab is a difficult punch to land from a standard position squared up with the opponent. Most of the time it is landed on opponents whose defense is not up to the cut to begin with. To land a jab as a southpaw or against a southpaw it is necessary to step the lead foot to the inside of the opponent's front foot. By stepping into a very sideways on stance in this manner it is possible to land a powerful jab cleanly between the opponent's hands. This is a dangerous technique to use, however, in MMA as placing the lead foot inside of an opponent's front foot places a boxer in a position to be foot swept. Here Joe Calzaghe begins to land his jab on Roy Jones Jr. in rounds 3 and 4 (from 6:45), but often finds himself off balanced over Roy's leg, even when Roy isn't attempting to trip him. Calzaghe's jab lands when he steps inside of Jones' leg, but simply lands on Roy's glove when Joe maintains his regular footing and attempts a combination. Most southpaw jabbers against competent opponents tend to establish one or two strong jabs and then begin jabbing without the step inside an opponent's foot, in order to bait the opponent into firing back, then counter with a lead hook or rear straight, or to simply cause the opponent to cover up as Calzaghe does to Jones.

The Lean-Back Lead Hook
The lead hook is difficult to land from scratch in the southpaw position, but one effective way used to land it by Joe Calzaghe, Anderson Silva, Naseem Hamed and Giorgio Petrosyan is to establish a southpaw jab as a threat in the opponent's mind then begin throwing less committed jabs, pulling the head away from the opponent's returned jab, then landing the right hook over his outstretched arm. To illustrate this form of counter I refer you to StillWill's EXCELLENT highlight of the cunning southpaw master Giorgio Petrosyan. Watch as he throws a lean back right hook at 0:47, 1:02, 1:56 against a kick, 2:15 in slow mo and 2:20 in super slow motion, disfiguring the face of Sato. Petrosyan uses other techniques off of the lean back which can also be seen in the highlight such as the left cross counter and the straight left, but for many right handed southpaws, such as Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, the short right hook can carry considerable power through a shorter, less predictable arc. This technique is also a favorite of Nick Diaz and Wicky Akiyo, two very disparate fighters in terms of style who find their own ways to pull it off.

Almost every basic punch is utilized through different angles and opportunities from the southpaw vs orthodox or "open guard" position. Punches which would have no hope of landing without a retaliation from an orthodox vs orthodox position such as the corkscrew uppercut, take on a much more effective role, and counters that aren't normally there such as the lean back right hook become extremely effective as the opponent has never had cause to train for them.

In the next installment of the Southpaw Striking Guide we will be covering footwork angles from the southpaw position with help from the genius of Giorgio Petrosyan and Manny Pacquiao. 


To learn more about striking from a southpaw stance or against a southpaw stance I recommend purchasing either Anderson Silva's Striking Combinations DVD, Lyoto Machida's Box Set or the excellentboxing coach Kenny Weldon's entire series or just the volume that pertains to southpaws.

Please notice that www.Fightsgoneby.com now has a donate button in the top right, if you could see to donating even a dollar or two to the site it would make my commitment to continually bringing the deepest striking analysis on the net considerably easier. If donation isn't your thing then please do me the honor of recommending my site to your friends and followers!

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