Photo by Buda Mendes/Zuffa LLC

Another UFC Fight Night is in the books and, though it wasn't one of the best, it provides us with plenty to talk about. From controversial stoppages, to unrelenting losing streaks, to brilliant techniques and tactics, there's no shortage of talking points.

Without further delay, let's talk about UFC Fight Night: Maia vs LaFlare.

During the undercard I had another one of my spooky, clairvoyant moments when I tweeted that Katsunori Kikuno would eat a flush right hand shortly after starting the round bolt upright, next to the fence, hands low and circling to his left. It wasn't really a prediction, when you're making the path for the straight right as obvious as Kikuno was, it would take a really slow fighter to miss the clues.

I stress it every time he fights—Kikuno was very good once. Folks think he's started losing because of his refusal to adopt a kickboxing guard, but at his best he fought with his palms well out in front of him. Checking punches before they even got going like the great George Foreman. Kikuno's hands were there to smother his opponents' offence, while he set up his brutal snap kicks to the body with the ball of the foot. He'd occasionally surprise everyone by slipping a punch and simultaneously delivering a cracking counter overhand.



Good Kikuno.

As a hot young prospect, Kikuno lost a couple of fights to big, established names like Eddie Alvarez. But instead of continuing to improve, he steered off into what can only be called foolishness. Ever since Kikuno has dropped his hands completely, walked into punches and relied on his chin. He's the walking embodiment of the idiotic attitude that zealously reading into the idea of budo or bushido will create.



Bad Kikuno.

When Kevin Souza stepped in, Kikuno tried the same slip and overhand he has used constantly since abandoning his kicking game, and in doing so he ducked directly onto a right straight. It was a beaut and it put the Japanese fighter to sleep. We know little more about Kevin Souza, but we know Kikuno's team still haven't intervened in his career seppuku.

But what I always enjoyed about Kikuno was his tremendous kicks with the ball of the foot (koshi in karate) to the midsection. These take the wind out of fighters like you wouldn't believe. Fortunately, while Kikuno spirals off into weird faux-karate brawler, we have young fighters using the methods he pioneered. Amanda Nunes winded Shayna Baszler with a nice snap kick to the midsection.

Often the reaction after eating one of these is to chase the leg back to the kicker—Lyoto Machida likes to snap kick and immediately land the foot behind him while throwing a rear straight punch. Baszler ran straight onto a two piece biscuit which wobbled her.

Another noticeable tendency on this card was under-committing to checking kicks. If a fighter checks a low kick simply by lifting his leg, he'll take the kick in the side of the calf—which stings—and be turned around by the force of it. To check properly a fighter wants to ensure that the surface he would ordinarily kick with is taking the blow.

So the leg must be picked up and turned outwards into the kick. Both Francisco Trinaldo and Shayna Bazsler were turned around by kicks as they attempted to check last night. Nunes won the fight by merit of her powerful, unchecked low kicks as Bazsler collapsed after the fifth connection.

Perhaps the most surprising win came from Godofredo Pepey over Andre Fili, as he channeled his inner Genki Sudo and jumped for a triangle from the clinch. An excellent and unusual answer to the single under hook pin to the fence which so many fighters use to land hard shots with their free hand. Certainly it is the favorite position of Cain Velasquez.

It is remarkable to see a fighter with the kind of confidence and adventurous attitude to do this. It made Sudo a tremendous threat in the clinch even when he couldn't get his excellent wrestling going. On the downside, it might have had something to do with Sudo's repeated neck injuries which forced him to drop out of MMA in his prime and start the awesome band and dance troup, World Order.

The fight that everyone is talking about though is the bout between Leandro Silva and Drew Dober. This has grabbed attention because the bout was called off as Dober escaped from a guillotine, apparently due to submission. There was no tap, Dober was conscious, and the Brazilian referee awarding an invisible submission to the Brazilian fighter, in Brazil, looks all kinds of shady.

But there's two more important lessons you can take away from this fight. Firstly, Dober routinely got Silva to the fence, then swung wild in combinations of head punches. If you get a man trapped along the fence, you should be throwing in some shots to his ribs, kidneys, solar plexus, sternum, collarbones. Anything which isn't going to move that much when he ducks or covers up.

Secondly, and more importantly. Leandro Silva has one of the most obvious tells I've ever seen. We don't get to talk about tells that much because competent strikers can normally work out any meaningful ones, but this one is just so apparent I struggled to believe it was legit.

A tell is a motion which a fighter performs before his attacks which telegraphs his intentions. In most fighters it's a subconscious move back into a rigid stance—a standing still for an instant before moving—just because that's where they are used to striking from. Occasionally, exceptionally uncomfortable fighters—or ones who have recently been knocked out, will close their eyes before attacking. Others will widen their eyes in an attempt to prevent this.

But Silva's is something else. Every time Silva is going to step in with punches, he snarls and shows his entire gum shield. Every. Single. Time.

It's made even more obvious by the fact that he refuses to use any non-essential movement. So you have a rigid guy, standing and waiting for the opportunity to strike. Then he shows his teeth, and only then will he pump out a punch. Against a quality striker, with a team who study the tape, this is going to cost Silva as it makes it exceptionally easy to counter him. Even more so as, for whatever reason, he doesn't snarl when he kicks.

The main event was just a wash out. Two one-dimensional grapplers going at it, except one was leagues ahead of the other. Demian Maia took Ryan LaFlare down with little trouble and guard passed him at will for twenty-two minutes, before gassing out for the last three. Maia will probably get the usual criticism for not finishing, but watching him cut through LaFlare's guard like a cheese wire was more than enough to impress me.

It wasn't just forcing the same pass over and over either, Maia found himself in butterfly guard and he'd pummel one knee in to set up the knee slide.



Maia cuts one knee in through the butterfly guard.

Half way through he'd drive into half guard and start attacking with the kimura. A basic combination of pass and submission, but that's what Maia is about, he's a master of the flow of basics. The comparison between high level grappling and chess is a solid one, you can have a favorite set of moves and strategies, but you have to have a fairly substantial bag of tricks, you can't always just try to force your favorites if that's not what the opponent is giving you.

Maia routinely switched to the over-under pass too, and on full display was the brilliant leg weave which he used to pass and mount Rory MacDonald, it was like having B.J. Penn back with us.

The leg weave/ dope mount is a ludicrously powerful position in MMA because it kills the opponent's legs and essentially gives the passer that one underhook, one arm free to punch position against the cage, but on the ground. When the opponent starts trying to drive his way out, the mount can be taken easily.

It was pretty much a game of cat and mouse as Maia passed to dominant positions and LaFlare fought his way back to almost guard. Certainly worth a watch for the art, even if it might not satisfy those less into the nitty gritty of grappling technique.

Come back tomorrow and we'll talk about cheating in Fighting Motives: The Mighty Thumb.

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