Figueroa vs. Molina

I have always enjoyed the sport of sweet science, fighters like Sugar Ray, Willie Pep, Holyfield. But nothing truly gets me excited than watching a blood and guts brawler, working his way up the brutal world of fighting. And nothing sums up Omar Figueroa than brutal and exciting.

While waiting for a flight I had the chance to catch up on Figueroa’s last win over Molina. After a multiple years lay off it was back to the same things for Figueroa, stance-switching and the 50/50.

Figueroa made his professional debut over 11 years ago and at age 29 the injuries and his often reckless style have constantly dumbfounded me. How does one maintain such a pressure-heavy style? Adding on the years of amateur and professional abuse, there has to be something to this fighter that makes him special.

Touch first, think second

His recent win over Molina was controversial, but it was a nice return to form for Figueroa as he took a unanimous decision win over a tough crafty veteran.

But what defines Figueroa early, touch and feel, and in the first round that is what he started doing.

Notice little commitment to any shots here

Fighting out of southpaw or orthodox, Figueroa is not really concerned with hitting his opponent hard or fast. He just wants to feel their distance and timing, while working his cross hand block.

Turns his face away to lessen the blow

This is Figueroa’s style of the cross-arm block. It is crude and strange, he puls his away like he is answering a relative’s phone call, but works with boxing gloves. While this is not a great defensive tool on the back-foot, it is what makes his offense on the front-foot interesting.

Ugly but effective

The traditional sense of the cross-arm guard hails from legends like Archie Moore, James Toney, and Dwight Muhammad Qawi. In its essence, the cross-arm guard is made for forward aggression while minimizing the damage that one may take.

Moore dropping Marciano

Notice the distance between Moore and Figueroa, both are using similar guards, but two distinct purposes. Moore wants to use his guard to move under shots and return from that same distance, Figueroa wants to drag it even closer.

Rather than backing up to throw power, Figueroa moves forward

Rather than making his opponents miss their shots, Figueroa takes shots on his arms and gloves, reducing their impact but still gets hit. For an iron-chinned fighter, this is not a big deal, however, for the longevity of his career and life, it might not be.

Furthermore, Figueroa does not rely on both of his arms during his guard, opting to lean into the space where his arm was.

Notice the dipping side to side rather than ducking down like Moore

While strange to look at, mechanically it allows Figueroa to do two things: 1. Build power for his rear hand, and 2. Put his head out of harm's way. These two mechanics are what allows Figueroa to bring pressure towards his opponents. By creating a moving target Molina is forced to swing at his head and overextends himself allowing Figueroa to move in with his rear hand and/or to walk his way in.

Walking and hitting, classic Figueroa

However, while sloppy in his entries and guard work, what makes Figueroa so devastating is his inside work from the 50/50.

The 50/50

What exactly is the 50/50? Well, it is how it sounds, a position from where both fighters are dead even in position with one hand under the other’s armpit. In boxing, fighters are often pulled apart once the holding goes on too long, however, in MMA the 50/50 is a crucial position alongside the cage and in the center as well.

Diaz v. McGregor 2 was fought heavily in this position

In the 50/50 both fighters are in an equal position, with one arm underneath their opponent’s arm. While the position is relatively even in the open cage, it can be leveraged along the fence to produce takedowns, strikes, or rest for the leaning fighter.

The common tactic for fighters currently is the throw ass hearted strikes, pummel for a better position, or shoot for a takedown.

Landing strikes, but hardly effective

Pummelling for better positioning

50/50 to a trip, to bodylock, into takedown

From the 50/50 one has many options to take the fight, however, I find that the striking can greatly be improved.

Drowning in the 50/50

Returning to Omar Figueroa, what makes his clinch boxing so interesting and effective, is that he places himself in position to always throw with surprising power. Remember that both fighters are practically chest to chest, so punches are thrown and connect with only a inches in distance. Figueroa has figured out, that the secret to throwing with power is to create distance within the clinch.

Watch Figueroa’s shoulder before he starts throwing

In every moment before Figueroa throws with power, he builds his distance by shoving his shoulder in the middle of his opponent’s chest creating the distance to throw his rear hand with power. This tactic is even more interesting as boxing does not have fingers in their gloves making holding his opponent down even harder.

Hence, the shoulder placement allows Figueroa to pin his opponent down and swing with power. He can also do this from the pinning shoulder, allowing him to hit a leaning opponent and herding them back into his clinch.

Notice how he ALWAYS creates distance before striking

Pushes with his left shoulder pins with his right, strikes with his left hand

One should also make notice of Molina’s feet, as Figueroa forces Molina’s feet to become parallel. Without one in front of the other, Molina cannot push Figueroa away with power or strike with power. To do either of these motions requires distance, and pushing Figueroa off to do so exhausted Molina.

Figueroa showing all the tactics discussed before

Notice how Figueroa while attacking can still avoid the strikes from Molina, precisely because he knows Molina can only throw weak hooks from a broken stance. By using all of these techniques Figueroa comes to show how powerful posting one’s head on another’s chest can be. It reduces power from Molina, allows for good defensive posturing, and allows for Figueroa to rest and sap the strength from Molina.

Bring on the Diaz

One of the few applications of this clinch striking comes from Nate and his brother Nick Diaz. Both fighters love walking their man down with hooks, herding them into the fence, but what truly destroys their opponents is the volume and consistency thrown.

What we can glean from the first and second McGregor fights is that Diaz absolutely melted McGregor’s cardio from these clinch exchanges. One could point to cardio management from McGregor as a factor, but I prefer to favor Diaz’s work as the first and foremost part of exhausting McGregor.

Exchanges like these exhausted McGregor

Starting from the 50/50, Diaz would look to pin McGregor down to the fence, closing the gap and avoiding McGregor’s famous left hand counter. But when they got into the clinch Diaz would post his head underneath or at an angle underneath McGregor’s allowing him to drill the body.

From 50/50, to head post, to body drilling

Had Diaz added a better more aggressive guard and better footwork to cut McGregor off, I am sure he could have held and struck from this position far more often, and with less punishment.

Conclusion

Figueroa’s style is not entirely applicable to MMA, the solemn use of the boxing glove is poor defense in MMA, however, the cross-arm guard is far more effective in MMA. Figueroa’s clinch game, however, translates beautifully into MMA, and the mechanics between dropping down for a takedown and ducking into a cross-arm guard is relatively the same.

Thus, by looking at Figueroa’s unique style of pocket boxing and clinching, I believe it can elevate the striking game of MMA as a whole. Whether or not this will happen is beyond me, but one can hope this will happen in the evolution of MMA.