Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

The UFC returned to our screens last night after a seemingly endless three week lay-off. While it was not the action packed return most were hoping for, it had some decent moments. There are lessons to be learned or reviewed about the fight game or specific combatants in every bout, no matter how bland.

In the main event, Ryan Bader took a predictable five round decision over Ovince St. Preux. Frankly, anyone who was giving St. Preux a chance was doing so solely based on Bader's suspect chin and porous boxing defense. St. Preux had shown to be deficient in the wrestling department against Gegard Mousasi, and though he's surely worked on it and improved in the last three years, he just wasn't able to measure up with the wrestling savant that is Ryan Bader.

What this fight really demonstrated was just how cautious Bader has become since standing in front of a wounded Glover Teixeira with his hands down. Three fights on, three overmatched opponents, and three slow, grinding decisions. OSP was understandably cautious on the feet—it was one strike at a time, and it wasn't getting much done. But Bader seemed reluctant to really open up on the ground—and when he did, he didn't achieve much.

The main event, aside from the beautiful takedowns, was a dull affair—so let's take a look at the rest of the card.

A Snapshot of Striking in MMA

It is so rewarding to watch a fight between two capable grapplers, and see good, technical boxing coming out of both men! And it happens more and more nowadays. We even see it on undercards at many UFC events. We're a long way on from Evan Tanner and Rich Franklin crossing their feet as they circled the ring in a middleweight title fight.

Ross Pearson might be one of the best boxers in MMA, and I have maintained that assertion for a while. Here's the thing—there's no one way to box, and every style can be hindered and forced out. Pearson's style is largely built around head movement. He dips and slips—normally to the inside of the opponent's jab—and throws a right hand over the top or comes up with a left hook. He's a brilliant counter puncher, when he can move his head out of the way.

How does one neutralize this? Well the way which worked for Cub Swanson and Edson Barboza was to make Pearson tentative to move his head. If you throw a lot of high kicks and middle kicks, people tend to be less keen to bob their head around and slip quickly to the sides. Once Pearson is standing upright, he's not so hard to hit—as Swanson and Barboza both demonstrated.

The other way to deal with head movement is to not let it accomplish anything. If someone is slipping punches, they're getting to dominant angles and firing back while the missed punch is still being recovered. Can't find someone's head? “Punch a hole in his chest.” And that's exactly what Gray Maynard went for in the first round of the co-main event. Pearson already had to worry about Maynard shooting for a takedown, so each time Maynard stepped in, he changed levels and punched the body. It was lovely stuff and it threw Pearson right off his game.

By the second round, however, Maynard was getting into his usual mindset. He started to look for Pearson's noggin and he ate a good counter right hand. It stunned Maynard and Pearson stepped in to pour it on and get the stoppage.

It's become a bit of a buzzword lately, but in recent pieces on T.J. Dillashaw and Roy Jones Jr. we played with the idea of the legendary sankaku-tobi or triangle leap. That is to leap around behind the opponent from a fighting position. Really just an old school legend which could have stemmed from the same angling off of punches which we see fighters perform today.

Really, it's just an extension of good angling. If you hit a man, spring out the other side and force him to turn and face you, you stand a good chance of 1) evading counter strikes, and 2) cracking him for free as he turns.

Against Maynard, Pearson accomplished this beautifully even before he knew his counter had hurt Maynard, pivoting off to almost 11 o'clock of where he had begun and landing a short left hook.

But as much as Pearson versus Maynard showed the thoughtful, dynamic side of striking in MMA, other fights further down the card showed sloppier striking and some considerations we have to make for MMA which needn't be made in boxing and kickboxing.

The night's worst fight from a technical perspective had to be Tom Watson versus Sam Alvey. Alvey ate low kicks all night, then sprinted forward swinging wildly, and Watson was slow enough to get caught by these charges.

If a man stands with his back foot turned out, his feet in line, doesn't make any effort to check kicks, and gets knocked off balance each time he eats one—he is not sparring with competent enough kickers. But bad performances are worth watching to better understand the sport—we have seen Alvey and Watson do better things than this in many fights, part of learning to watch fights is learning to put your finger on what's going wrong. At any rate, it wasn't a terribly boring fight.



If the back foot is turned this far out, a fighter can't pivot on the ball of the foot into his right hands effectively, and his back foot drags as he advances.

Don't Hook with a Hooker

Each punch in the traditional arsenal is a tool, and each tool best fits a certain task. If you're very good with one you can force the opportunity for it, but each punch is at it's most effective in specific situations. The jab is prime at distance, the right straight can be a short counter or a long power punch in combination, the uppercut is for exploiting an opponent's hunching posture, and the left hook is the king of counters.

Frankly, you could do much worse for self defence than simply teaching yourself to cover up with a cross guard and explode with a counter hook when you feel the right hand on your forearms, Archie Moore style. The thing is, that trading hooks is an inherently dangerous game. Hence the expression which Angelo Dundee berated Muhammad Ali with through three fights with the great Smokin' Joe Frazier:

“Don't hook with a hooker!”

I am sure you've seen dozens of knockouts like the ones we saw last night in the Boetsch fight and in Jouban fight. Both men swing, one man connects. But looking at both men there is nothing to stop either man eating a flush hook. It is the chance of good timing which allows one man to stand and the other to fall.

Hooking with the passive hand at the chest is a duel with flint locks. You're hoping you land first, and the other guy doesn't land at all. We've all seen double knockouts: where both guys get cracked and go down—it's rare but it can happen if you get lazy with the non-punching hand. Hell, if it happened to Ramon Dekkers, it can happen to anyone.

Here's the thing—in MMA you can carry your hand by your chin as you would in boxing, and still get nailed in front, behind or through it! MMA gloves are just too small to hide behind. To really play this dangerous hooking game, a fighter needs to be able to use his forearms and elbows to cover the jawline and temple as Roy Jones Jr. and George Foreman used to do so well in boxing.



Notice that the forearm is high and takes the blow.

There isn't a great deal more to say about last night's card. It wasn't a great one—though the co-main event was good, and watching Tim Boetsch gut it out and come from behind is a tremendous rush.

Pick up Jack Slack's new ebook, Fighting Karate at his blog Fights Gone By. Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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