how important are 1s and 2s in mma/mt vs boxing

[John Schultz]

Sergei Kharatonov use of body jabs. He rushes fighters when they decide to counter with a high knee or kick.

 

[aerius]

I train in a mainly boxing gym now I am having a hard time trying to adapt mt boxing. Western boxing has taught me some negative things like head movement which in mma leads to head kick kos etc. I get shovel hooks body punch in the liver etc will come in time with more training.

Head movement gets you head kicked when it's predictable. Let's take Daniel Cormier as an example, his standard reaction to punches when they start getting past his guard is leaning back and towards his right, same way every time. He doesn't lean or slip left or use other movements, it's always back & to the right. Both Rumble Johnston and Jon Jones figured out that pattern in his head movement and head kicked him.

MMA is kinda weird, if a fighter makes giant showboating head movements or constantly moves his head when he's well outside striking range (but his head movement stops as soon as he steps in for an attack), this is somehow seen as superior head movement by fans, commentators, and even "analysts". If you just move your head a couple inches to make the other guy barely miss, no one picks up on it and they'll go "he has no head movement".

Which brings us to Muay Thai. In MT we rarely see the big flashy movements that Samart and Somrak often use to clown & frustrate their opponents, most of the time it's a small slip or a quick duck or pull to avoid or take some of the power off a strike. Watch Superlek (blue shorts) at 1:18 where he does a quick duck to avoid a punch, then at 1:47 there's a quick pull to make the hook miss, 2:11 is another pull to take the steam off a right cross, and so on. If you watch it carefully, there's a lot of small but effective head movements throughout the fight.


As for the 1-2, works great in MMA, not so much in MT. In MT we generally pair the jab with the teep as a probe to get the range, annoy an opponent, and setup other strikes or to help keep an opponent stuck on the outside. There are sometimes openings for a good 1-2 but your opponent generally has to be a bit off-balance or frozen for it to land since they can usually teep you back out of range, clinch, or otherwise defend before you can land the 2.

 

[SandisLL]

Yup, predictability is the key.

Not rarerly the most effective stuff is combined methods with block involved too.
Still many analysts think that " block " is only to absorb something and nothing else.

In MMA works well stuff that isn't good for KB/MT or boxing. Mainly I think cos huge fears from takedowns not from low skill level.

 

[j123]

MMA is kinda weird, if a fighter makes giant showboating head movements or constantly moves his head when he's well outside striking range (but his head movement stops as soon as he steps in for an attack), this is somehow seen as superior head movement by fans, commentators, and even "analysts". If you just move your head a couple inches to make the other guy barely miss, no one picks up on it and they'll go "he has no head movement".

To MMA commentators and fans, hands up chin down while shelling up is a superior technical defense....

 

[Cowboyletsgo]

To MMA commentators and fans, hands up chin down while shelling up is a superior technical defense....

Joe Rogan is still teh king: "once in a Million athlete"

 

[SandaKicker]

The Cro Cop clip is roughly time stamped, the kick comes after 20 seconds or so.

On both occasions the fighter feints a straight left hand, the other fighter slips to their right side and gets caught with a headkick.

One of the problems for Hunt is that his defense is disproportionately his head movement and never his feet because it's hard to move 300 pounds. Personally I would consider Hunt an elite striker by MMA standards though.