SLC MMAExploring MMA and Jujitsu in Salt Lake City Utah

Elbow Sandwitch: Nick Denis KO’s Joseph SandovalFiled Under: UFC

Elbows from the clinch are no joke.

Just thought I’d leave this here.

Tags: elbow strikes, muay thai clinch, Nick Denis

Uppercuts from UFC 139Filed Under: UFC

Among many of the awesome things at UFC 139, there were a number of solid uppercuts. Thus inspired, I threw together a little video with commentary.  Hope you enjoy.

 References:

BJ Penn’s book, the MMA book of knowledge, has a solid introduction to the uppercut punch with a couple of variations.

If you are just looking for a quick video on how to throw the uppercut, here’s one for that.

Or you can always go the boxing purist route with Russ Abner’s boxing fundamentals DVD.

Tags: Dan Hender, Faber, Shogun Rua, UFC 139, Uppercuts

Lessons of the KO: Cain’s Reign ended (UFC on FOX)Filed Under: polls, UFC

Saturday Novemeber 12: Forty minutes of  pre-fight hype on Fox didn’t slow heavyweights Junior Dos Santos and Cain Velasquez from getting busy in no time.  The bout ended in 64 seconds with JDS shoveling punches into a downed Velasquez, who was sent to the mats courtesy of a nasty looping overhand right.

Lesson 1: JDS is a bad mamba-jamba.

Lesson 2: Cain has a chin, but the shot behind the ear messes with your equilibrium, making it hard to get up. Remember, Cheick Kongo blasted Cain on the chin with two good shots and he recovered and wrestled to victory.

Lesson 3: MMA boxing is different than regular boxing.  The looping-overhand punch (a la Chuck Liddell) works really well with 4 ounce gloves.  It seems … almost sloppy, like it shouldn’t work.  But it does. Oh, it does.

Lesson 3: Loveable fatboy, Roy Nelson, has one tough cranium. JDS plowed that thing into the ground and Roy didn’t go out. (Roy has  nacho-cheese injected directly into his brain-stem every fiscal quarter, making him hard to knock out.  Science fact. )

After every good lesson, there must be a knowledge check! My questions for you are:

Q1.  Does this mean Cain has a “glass jaw” or are the heavyweight sluggers just that brutish?

Q2.  After seeing some HW heavy hands, do we credit Brock Lesnar for taking a beating much longer (or better?) than Cain?

Q3.  Who do you think the best HW is going to be in the next year?

Let me know in the comments.

Tags: Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos, UFC on FOX

Kenny Florian training for Jose AldoFiled Under: UFC

I’ll just leave this here.  Happy Friday.

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Tags: ABB, Kenny Florian

UFC 129: Steven Seagal’s Front Kick Wins AgainFiled Under: Rantings, UFC

I really enjoyed watching UFC 129 -it had a lot of fun fights for me. The icing on the cake, however, was Lyoto Machida knocking out Randy Couture with the jumping front kick, karate kid style. I pretty much had a karategasm on the spot.

As for the naming convention of the move, the metropolitan intellectuals over at Sherdog pretty much nailed it – the  “Segalian Dragonkick of Destiny”  is it’s correct correct title (cred:  Nihilism). Other acceptable (but not fully correct) names include the jumping front kick, the crane kick, and foot-to-face retirement sender. Personally, I don’t care what you might call it; I could watch that kick a million times and still enjoy it.

Of course, added joy comes into play with the fact that Steven Seagal has been chumming around with Lyoto and Anderson Silva, giving them his fighting tips.  The post fight interview with Seagal is kinda fun, due to his nuttiness and the fact that he must only have one outfit – black leather jacket, yellow sunglasses.  (In that spirit, I highly recommend you watch “Every bone Steven Seagal has ever broken.“  Poster wolffood7 astutely points out that breaking bones must make you fat.)

But one thing Seagal does strike true about is the deceptiveness of the kick. The magnum opus isn’t the kick, but the set up.  Lyoto had landed that fast rear leg knee to the body, and Randy was leery of it. When Machida did a little hip shuffle, it distracted Couture and then the coup de grace spanked Randy’s brain into unconsciousness.

With Karate back in favor, you  can wax nostalgic and relive some of your misspent childhood by watching the original. Just remember to sweep the leg.

Tags: front kick, lyoto machida, Steven Seagal, ufc 129