Well I finally got the chance to see UFC 101 yesterday and boy was it worth the wait. If you haven't seen it yet look away now cause I know how it feels when fights are ruined for me. I usually opt for a media block out, and yeah don't use twitter the next day, trust me!
I can say with absolute confidence that the performance of Anderson Silva against Forrest has to be the greatest performance I have ever seen inside the Octagon. Joe Rogan says it a lot, but Silva is definitely a character out of a movie. Silva was up against the former UFC Light Heavyweight champion and one of the most beloved fighters in the UFC ever since his slug fest with Stefan Bonner in the Ultimate Fighter finally season one. Forrest also has excellent cardio, great power and most of all heart! People might have been excused if they thought he had a chance against the reigning Middleweight champion, I sure did, especially taking into account Silva's last two fights versus Cote and Laites. Cote got injured mid way through and Laites ran from Silva for 5 rounds. Lets also not Forget that Silva was moving up a weight class to fight Griffin. What we were treated too was magical.
Silva felt up Griffin for the usual minute and then turned on the action. He managed to knock down Griffin 3 times in the first round the last of which finished the fight as Forrest waved that he has had enough! The first knock down was via a right hook to the jaw which dropped Forrest instantly but he was able to recover pretty quickly. The second one was truly brilliant. Silva stayed in the "pocket" in front of Forrest ducking under 3 punches with incredible head movement only to land a straight right and Forrest was down again. It was something you could only see in a Hollywood movie, something Jet-Li could pull off. Silva immediately pounced on him and at that point I though Forrest was done, but either he recovered or Anderson wasn't ready to finish him off yet. With Forrest out of options he attempted a flurry of punches while moving aggressively forward, Silva moved back smoothly and landed a jab while doing so that downed Griffin for the final time. I couldn't believe my eyes.
I was watching with my brother, who follows UFC diligently like myself, my wife who is a huge Ultimate Fighter fan, and a friend who sees a game with me once every blue moon. Prior to the game my brother and I were trying to explain why Anderson Silva is a legend but no amount of words could explain what my friend saw with his own eyes a few minutes later. If you ever see an MMA match this one has to be it!
Anderson Silva is the best pound for pound fighter in the world, and probably the best fighter that ever lived. Like Jordan was for basketball and Mardonna was to football, Anderson Silva is for MMA!
After the massive success of my article on the cross counter fight fans began coming out of the woodwork on forums everywhere and showing me their favorite instances of the technique being employed. Here are a couple that I really enjoyed. As a reminder, the classical cross counter is an overhand thrown over the top of an opponent's jab and is regarded as the most effective counter punch in boxing, and not the straight right hand as is thought today.
Here is a superb application by K-1 Max and Shootboxing legend, Andy Souwer against Gago Drago. The cross counter punctuated a classic Souwer clinic in kickboxing, and while he is not known for his punching power, a perfectly timed counter-strike like this will end anyone's night.
Here is one of Overeem's against Ben Edwards from the original article. As you can see he lands beautifully as over Ben's attack and sends him sprawling to the mat like a sack filled with vegetable soup.
This gif of Machida's loss to Shogun shows largely the cost of tactical errors at the highest level of the game. In their 6 rounds of combat Machida and Shogun were pretty much at a stale mate as each one fired back a counter to the other man's counters. Machida landed a solid springing knee (case study of the Machida knee coming soon!) and got too confident in the pocket with a much better brawler. Following immediately with a left straight (from a southpaw stance) Machida was met with a cross counter from Shogun which caught his temple and took him out of the fight.
In this gif Jen's Pulver, in his young and terrifying days, lands a cross counter on John Lewis who is clearly timid and attempting to "establish the jab" against the undersized lightweight king. Pulver can likely see the tentativeness of his opponent as clearly as we do in this grainy gif, isn't bothered and simply socks him over the top. That's comfort that only experience can bring.
Here is BJ Penn throwing an interesting variation where he ducks the left hand of Sanchez (a vastly inferior striker who threw the same combination repeatedly at the exclusion of everything else against Penn) and comes up with the right hook - a truly difficult punch to land at the top level, and beautifully done by BJ. An article on the right hook will be coming at some point I assure you all!
A final cross counter, by the king of the cross counter (seriously, I could make an entire page of just his - and might) Joe Louis. Here the gigantic Primo "The Ambling Alp" Carnera has been circling to his left while bolt upright and jabbing all fight (take note Michael Bisping) and Louis clocks him over the top in the sixth round, heralding the beginning of the end for the big Italian.
Doubling up is the act of throwing two successive blows with the same hand, and can be extended into tripling up, quadrupling up or to any number imaginable - limited only by speed, ambition and arm cramp. The term Lever Punch or Crowbar punch was coined by Soviet Boxing Team Head Coach K. V. Gradapolov in his "Tactics of the Foreign Masters" to describe the legendary black pugilist Peter Jackson's seemingly unique tactic of throwing a hard left hook and without drawing his shoulders back completely throwing another one immediately afterward. This action served to break the opponents guard and concentration as after a hard left hook a hard right punch is almost always expected. The second punch did not matter much to Jackson who simply used it to "lever" open some space in which to fire his powerful right hand, but in recent years it has been possible for the second or third successive punch off of one hand to be used as a damaging blow. A brilliant example of "doubling up" or "lever punches" is Manny Pacquiao's fight with David Diaz:
Manny Pacquiao throughout his career had experienced the advantage of being a southpaw - awkward and unseen by most fighters with savvy managers. Against Diaz he fought another southpaw - effectively neutralizing Pacquiao's ability to lead with his left hand. As a southpaw against an orthodox fighter it becomes a contest of power punches seemingly as both sides find it much easier to land a straight with their rear hand (usually their power hand) than with their jab. Jabbing in a contest involving a southpaw and an orthodox fighter is usually largely ineffective unless one participant fights with their lead hand and shoulder down as Diego Sanchez made the mistake of doing against Martin Kampmann a few months back. In this fight Manny had to prove he could fight with his lead hand, and he did it VERY convincingly. At 0:25 Pacquiao uses a slapping lead hook to jump to the side of Diaz, following it with a short uppercut off of the same hand, bringing Diaz's head up for a hook off of his rear, left hand. Manny lands a lead uppercut to the body followed immediately by a lead uppercut to the head at 0:38. By not bringing his hand back to his guard in between Manny is able to bring the punch through Diaz's blind angle, the point down by his feet that he cannot see through his peripheral vision, and so the punch lands with surprise and good effect. Emmanuel Steward - a far wiser man than most in combat sports - breaks down the combination in slow motion at 1:00 noting it's rarity even in modern boxing. Pacquiao again doubles up later in the fight, this time using a jab to lead uppercut combination that lands flush at 1:43 of the video.
Another beautiful example of doubling up from the boxing world is Mike Tyson's famous combination of the jab, rear hook to the body and rear uppercut. He used this to effectively finish tough British heavyweight and all around nice guy, Frank Bruno. At 9:37 Mike has had Bruno reeling but has failed to finish by swarming on him, so he takes a step back and reconsiders his strategy. Pushing Bruno against the ropes he sinks the right hook to the body and immediately follows up with the right uppercut. Again as the punch had started down by Bruno's trunks, Tyson's uppercut was not telegraphed in the usual way by his glove leaving his own chin and dropping below his shoulders.
The professional kickboxer and K-1 superstar Gokhan Saki has some of the fastest hands in his division, also being one of the smallest men in it. Gokhan Saki throws some of the most inventive combinations of any fighter in the world, let alone at heavyweight. In his fight with "Flashy" Freddy Kamayo, he completely outshone his opponent and upstaged Kamayo's moniker by throwing heavyweight power in lightweight combinations. At 0:55 he throws a jab, cross, left hook to the head and a left hook to the body, following it with a hard low kick, and Freddy's night only gets worse from there. After stunning Kamayo with a solid counter hook, Saki follows him to the ropes and immediately begins using smoke and mirrors to baffle his opponent rather than swinging wildly for the finish. At 2:03Saki quadruples up by throwing a left hook to the body, a left uppercut (through the blind angle) and a double left hook to the head in rapid succession. At 2:31 Saki tops off his performance by tripling up with his left hand, throwing a right hand, tripling up the left hand again, then rolling his left hand over his opponent's head, using it to rip down Kamayo's left glove and land a right hand that sends Freddy sprawling across the canvas. Kamayo is game and makes it to his feet but the damage is done and a stoppage follows seconds later.
Mention is needed for how this underused tool appears in MMA. It is rare that you see it used but when it is, it almost always scores and I believe that fighters will pick up on this soon. The Diaz brothers, Nate and Nick are exceptional at throwing multiple punches off of one hand in quick succession. Nick's hands are so hyperactive throughout the fight (though in a strangely slow rhythm) that I won't even attempt to pin point all of the double ups he performs but I'll observe a few just to illustrate the point. At 4:00, 4:15, 6:48, 9:51 and9:53 and 9:54 Diaz throws two punches off of the same hand in rapid succession. There are numerous other examples of doubling up in this half of the fight alone, but good luck counting. Diaz's work rate is incomparable and on most of the occasions he doubles up a punch one of the two lands, and by the 9:50 mark both are landing.
A few honourable mentions: Takanori Gomi was a fierce MMA puncher in his prime and doubled up to great extent against the (on paper at least) much better striker Jens Pulver - using a lead hook to the body to bend Pulver towards the following lead hook to the head. Fedor Emelianenko also used a beautiful combination against Mirko Cro Cop that consisted of a right straight to the southpaws sternum, a left uppercut to meet him as he bent forward and a left hook to loop around Cro Cop's guard as he attempted to defend himself.
Finally no article on doubling up would be complete without a mention of Roy Jones Jr., I am not even going to attempt to offer individual times for this video as I believe anyone who hasn't seen it should watch the entire three minutes; it's pretty inspiring. If you're really pushed for time just forward to the end, but you'll be missing some of the best left hook work in boxing history.
Some techniques get better with age, like a fine wine, and the Cross Counter is certainly one of them. The term "cross" has some to mean a straight right hand to the head, when in fact it originally referred to a right hook combined with a slip to the left - or what is commonly termed an "overhand".
Unlike the modern overhand we see utilized in Mixed Martial Arts by inexperienced strikers, the Cross Counter is designed to place your head inside of your opponent's jab so that your looping punch can travel over the top of his extended arm. The move came to prominence under the great Joe Gans but had existed even before he began fighting in the late 1890s. In the Spalding athletic library's first volume on boxing - guest written in part by the first gloved heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan - a great many variations of the Cross Counter are given. Here is a picture from the longtime Soviet boxing team head coach K. V. Gradapolov's book "Tactics of Foreign Masters". Gans is on the right, performing his cross counter over an opponent's jab.
The overhand has been called the great equalizer, but in truth the Cross Counter is even more dangerous. As so many top boxers and fighters have been taught to "establish the jab", it is almost certain that a fighter will open 90% of his combinations with a jab. A great many competitors who have been overmatched on paper have been able to land spectacular knockout blows on a complacent "scientific boxer" through the use of the Cross Counter from the opening bell.
For those Mixed Martial Arts fans among you, many of you will be familiar with Aleksander Emelianenko - the younger brother of heavyweight demi-god, Fedor and one of the most frightening boxers in MMA. Despite destroying fighters like Sergei Kharitanov and Pedro Rizzo, and being competitive with Mirko Cro Cop, Aleks was still knocked out quite recently by the first punch his opponent threw. Magomed Malikov, a relative nobody - comes out bubbling with nervous energy and obviously lacks the comfort which Aleks feels in the stand up game. From the start it is also clear that Magomed is waiting for Aleks to step into range, which he fakes several times. As soon as Aleks commits to stepping in however, Magomed cracks him with the Cross Counter over Aleks' jab.
Many of you will also be familiar with Alistair Overeem's overhand or Cross Counter. In his match with Ben Edwards, Alistair showed enormous improvement in his boxing game from his previous performances, where his over-reliance on knee strikes led to the K-1 organization (unfairly in this fan's opinion) banning the Thai clinch. Notice at 1:30 and 20 seconds later at 1:50 how Overeem uses his head movement coincided with a huge right hook to catch Edwards while he's jabbing. The beauty of the Cross Counter is that it can be landed after the jab has landed if the opponent is slow to draw it back, as at 1:30, or as the jab comes out, as at 1:50.
Many call the overhand a sloppy punch; but I implore those among you who look on it like that as an offensive weapon to consider it's context. When thrown as a lead or as part of a combination, the overhand is pretty telegraphed and amateurish, but when a lead is drawn out of the opponent and the Cross Counter employed, the overhand suddenly becomes the most dangerous weapon in a striker's arsenal.
