.

I remember seeing Dan Henderson use something like this in his fight against Jake Shields. He wasn’t able to roll Jake, but kept his hips from getting sucked underneath and got his legs to the side and then to freedom with his belly down.

So the burning question is this – is it “takedowns” or “take downs”? I’m not a grammar snob, and I’m into evolving language so I naturally think “takedown” is the winner, despite my spell checker’s evil red underlines. Anyway, I just heard that Quinton Rampage Jackson hurt his knee, so for UFC 98 it will be Lyoto Machida vs Rashad Evans.

I think it’ll be a great fight; Machida is a defensive mastermind and smooth operator, while Rashad is a young, explosive buck with strong wrestling. Both guys have focused, accurate striking.

I expect that Rashad’s camp will be trying to concoct a specific strategy for Machida – tie him up, push him to the cage, rough him up a bit – or maybe try to just it to the ground. Whatever the case, I suspect that a deciding factor in the fight will be who can pull off takedowns or sweeps, and who can’t.

Above there are two video’s, one of Shogun defending the double underhooks and subsequent throws, the other of Yves Edward showing how to defend the single leg takedown.

Below is a link to John Hackleman teaching about takedown defense via lateral movement, striking etc. Remember that John is one of Chuck Liddell ‘s trainers, and the Iceman has great takedown defense.

CrossPit_TDdefense1Distance.wmv