The weekend of October 23rd seemed full of promise. Friday was supposed to see Nova Uniao standout vie for his old belt against current champion and former training partner Marcos Galvão. The UFC was set to anchor the weekend with a card full of prospects and wayward mid-tier fighters, headlined by two of the most exciting fighters in the stacked lightweight division, Dustin Poirier and Joseph "last guy to beat Conor McGregor" Duffy, with heavyweights Stipe Miocic and Ben Rothwell in the co-main slot.

Then, the injury bug did its evil work. Duffy was concussed during his last day of hard sparring, and the Poirier fight was cancelled. The week before that, Miocic suffered an undisclosed injury that saw him pull out of the co-main event of the same card, leaving Ben Rothwell without a dance partner. And a week before that, Dantas injured his rib and pulled out of his title fight, forcing Bellator to scrap the bout altogether.

It was kind of a bummer.

Lacking in name value and relevance, however, the fights that remained did not disappoint. In fact, there were more than enough eye-catching moments to warrant the return of my much-neglected series, the Technique Breakdown. This is a series meant for only the most depraved, desperate fight geeks out there, so it seems fitting that I'll be analyzing a weekend of fights that only the most hardcore of hardcore fans tuned in to watch.

So sit down, relax, and protect your internal organs. We're talking about front kicks.

SETTING UP THE FINISH

Featuring: Tom Breese, Cathal Pendred

Cathal Pendred has been the butt of many jokes since making his UFC on the heels of The Ultimate Fighter season 19. Slow of hand and foot, he has probably heard every synonym of the word "boring" ever conceived. What has never been called into question, however, is his toughness--which makes Tom Breese's destruction of the Irish grinder all the more impressive.

1. Breese starts with his hips coiled, pulled slightly back.

2. As Pendred begins to circle left, Breese begins his kick--note the chambering of his lower leg.

3. He drives through with his hips as the ball of his foot connects with Pendred's liver.

4. Pendred tries to escape, but he is crippled by the pain.

5. Two clean straight lefts from Breese . . .

6. . . . and that's it.

In four and a half minutes with Pendred, Breese threw three front kicks to the body, all of them while Pendred was circling clockwise. Looking at frames 1-3 above, you can see why. As Pendred begins moving to Breese's right, he opens up the right side of his own body to Breese's left leg, creating a straight line down which a linear front kick can quickly travel, while also creating just enough distance for the leg to fully extend.

A front kick is already difficult to block cleanly, but no kicker wants his flexed toes to meet the hard point of an elbow. Breese cleverly threw his fight-ending kick shortly after attempting a head kick with the same leg, placing some doubt in Pendred's mind as to the intentions of the strike. He doubled down on these mind games when, after hurting Pendred's body, he finished the Irishman off with two quick straight lefts upstairs.

Note the thrust of Breese's hips as he follows through on his kick, driving the ball of his foot between Pendred's ribs. A front kick works like a sort of long-range uppercut, driving up into an angled target, but the mechanics make it far more powerful. By chambering his leg, heel-to-hamstring, Breese increases the amount of distance his foot will have to travel as the upper leg reaches full extension. As his hip thrusts forward, he unchambers, snapping his foot forward and letting it build up tremendous speed. By connecting with the ball of his foot, Breese directs all of that power into one of the smallest, hardest surfaces of the human body, allowing him to penetrate a soft target with relative ease.

THE GUT BUSTER

Featuring: Rafael Carvalho, Brandon Halsey

Rafael Carvalho does a lot of things well, but his ability to stay composed is at the top of the list. Just as when he faced Bellator stalwart Brian Rogers in his promotional debut, Carvalho was forced to weather an early storm in a battle against former Bellator middleweight champ Brandon Halsey in a battle for the vacant belt. After nearly a round and a half of counter-grappling, it was a front kick that turned the tide.

1. Having failed on a takedown attempt, Halsey takes center ring and prepares to try again.

2. Carvalho takes a hard step toward him, drawing his hips back . . .

3. . . . before slinging them forward, bringing his tightly chambered leg along for the ride.

4. Halsey begins to move backward, but Carvalho catches him on the liver all the same, stabbing him with just the tips of his toes.

5. It's more than enough to put Halsey down.

What's interesting about this kick is the way that Carvalho connects. Seeing Halsey start to retreat, he seems to adjust his foot mid-swing in order to catch the former champ's liver with the tops of his toes rather than missing him with the ball of the foot. Ultimately the kick ends up looking like a sort of front kick/round kick hybrid--an upward round kick, if you will.

Nevertheless, the trajectory of the kick is that of a classic front kick. The fact that Halsey was caught on the retreat, albeit with a slight adjustment, highlights the importance of an outward thrust in a front kick. Were Carvalho merely to have swung his leg upward, he would have gotten a good hamstring stretch and nothing more. It is only because he projects his hips forward and drives through the target that his kick connects. Just like an uppercut, the path of a proper front kick should almost always be more elliptical than circular, striking forward as well as upward.

The weekend wasn't what we hoped it would be, but it wasn't bad either. Give talented up-and-comers a chance to perform, it seems, and they will rarely disappoint. Sometimes, in fact, they will impress you with new techniques, or perfect execution of old ones.