Quickie on Jack Slack’s analysis on Aldo vs. McGregor @UFC194

These are exciting times for MMA fans. UFC for 3 days straight from today culminating finally in Aldo vs McGregor which is preceded by the most versatile match ever in Weidman vs Rockhold and other excellent fights I’m super excited about. I think I haven’t been looking forward to MMA in a long time. Next week we’re gonna have Cerrone vs Dos Anjos, we’re gonna see how Rizin does it’s odd thing (with a former Estonian sumo-wrestler in it Kaido Höövelson aka Baruto) and from that on it’s hopefully Lawler vs Condit, Velasquez vs Werdum 2 and so forth and so on… oh boy.

I haven’t been writing analyses much… There’s multiple reasons for that – being a full time dad for 2 kids takes a lot of time besides lecturing and coaching and trying to train myself. Also the average level of popular articles on fights has gone way up and a lot of bloggers possess skill and other resources allowing them to add video material etc. So I’ve become more of a consumer and a practicioner (as a coach) and given up the armchair-analysist role 🙂

HOWEVER I can’t stay silent if I see something missing… And that’s the theme here. Also almost ON PURPOSE the post is gonna be all text 🙂 Use your imagination, like in the time of books, where moving GIFs were not invented and pictures were sparse.

So here it goes:

I really like Jack Slack’s material. If not all, then 95% of it! And he has done a splendid job of breaking down Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor thus far. Here is his final piece before the bout on Saturday and it is an excellent read:

http://fightland.vice.com/…/aldo-versus-mcgregor-a-clash-of…

However in my opinion it is missing a key detail. The best strategy to get an advantage over a mirrored (southpaw vs. orthodox) fighter (especially for a fighter who thinks he has the advantage in clinch / wrestling). And that strategy is …

… well I’ll begin from what Slack has already established: in “open guard” (southpaw vs. orthodox) stance an important tactic/angle/strike (these are somewhat inseparable here) is the rear straight and he praises McGregor for using it. Slack talks a bit about the lead hand in the Weidman vs Rockhold piece but let’s leave it at that for now. Slack acknowledges (as he’s done before) that what makes the rear straight work is the alignement of rear shoulder with the opponents centerline (nose/jaw/solar plexus). What he does not state in this piece but has said before is that this alignement is established by moving outside of the opponents lead hand/foot – key strategy in “open guard” (southpaw vs. orthodox) stance.

What is important is that this stance (like the traditional stance) is equally valid for both fighters. Only way a southpaw has an advantage over the orthodox fighter is via being more experienced and tactically sound in that position.

Therefore BOTH fighters can try to maneuver into the position Slack describes as advantageous. Forcing that angle while BOTH fighters want it is especially beneficial for a person with better clinch/wrestling (which I think Aldo thinks he is) and/or the shorter fighter (which Aldo is). Why? Because if one forces/presses with movement to get that angle one of three things happens:

1) You DO get the better angle and can work the rear straight yourself OR opt for the disturbing leadhand work (long hook a la Rockhold, or jab a la Nog vs. Evans)

2) Opponent is forced to back up (and reset and adjust the angle which makes him less dangerous and more predictable – for the rear high kick for example that Slack mentions)

3) Opponent accepts your pressure game and presses even more himself which even when he momentarily has a better angle to fire off shots leads to clinch or opens up opportunities for takedowns and what is a very good solution if you consider yourself the better wrestler and are prepared. 🙂

Of course I think McGregors clinch and takedown defense games are far better than Aldo (or the general public) think so while it seems a good strategy for Aldo, it might not help him but would be worth a try 🙂

That’s my 2 cents I had to get off my chest. All the best and enjoy the fights, I know I will.

War Conor and bring the belt to SBGi again!

And it’s AAAALLLLL OVER! (Retirement post)

Few days ago in Raju 14 I cornered 4 athletes going 4:0.

Here comes a little personal post after a long silence in this blog. I have been divided between many things in the past year – raising a kid, helping a startup as new stuff. And all the old stuff -teaching in University, counseling, running a gym etc.

However sometimes some things need to be said explicitly:

My careeer as an athlete competing in professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is over.

One has to make tough choices now and then. MMA is not a joke. To take it seriously and possibly accomplish a leap in my skills as well as career it would’ve needed a narrow focus only on my training and my career. If I had made that choice I wouldn’t have been there for my loved ones like I am now.

I definately wouldn’t have been able to work as diversely as I have (I am a psychologist and a lecturer) and my work in my own gym (VÕIMLA SBGi) with my athletes – all that would’ve fallen far down in the priority list.

I did not see a point in fighting tomato cans nor training sub-par and being a journeyman fighter. Therefore this is it 🙂

My last fight – loss at Raju 12.

The Estonian MMA won’t end with me:) Despite being still one of the best Estonian fighters on paper, I am not the only one. Henri Hiiemäe, Ott Tõnissaar, Alik Tseiko ja Denis Smoldarev all have good chances for  international success. The next generation is also coming along as strong amateurs show promising growth.

One of my aspirations is to be a part of and Estonian fighter’s journey to the absolute top level MMA in the world. I believe that dream is realistic – I am confident that our training methods are on par with the top camps in the world. We possess analytical minds in every area of the game. The Estonian Federation of MMA has been able to create possibilities for high level consultations in nutrition, physiotherapy and sport psychology.

Of course we don’t yet have ideal training facilities… money is always lacking. But to complain about that would be foolish – you can do things now or wait forever for the “ideal conditions”. I want to stand by the young talented athletes who want to do things now.

Cornering Alar Hutrov at Raju 13.

Maybe one more thought on why I chose to quit now. I never had a real passion for FIGHTING per se. I can’t say I LOVED the adrenaline rush that came with it. Don’t get me wrong – I liked to compete. Every match was like a puzzle for me – can I solve this with my skills right here and now? I liked the challenge and to know where I’m at. Combat sports are a very honest enviroment for testing one’s physical and psychological skills and competition is often more honest than training.

It is easy to aquire a flow-state or come close to it in combat sports and I like that.

The catch – one does not have to be a professional Mixed Martial Artist to still recieve those gains. I think I can still have it all as a coach, a training partner and competing in amateur sports (e.g. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and maybe even wrestling or boxing or something else).

Still – of course I liked the show and attention of the pro-career. I am extremely grateful for all my fans and supporters. I felt your presence and that made the pain that is preparing for a pro-fight a lot easier to bare. My sincerest thank you to every one whose good and comforting words helped to ease and overcome defeat and whose joy for my successes helped to amplify my own.

It’s always nice to come out on top – Raju 11. Win in front of a crowd of 3000.

I hope my career helped to bring Estonians to Mixed Martial Arts and to show that there is something special in combat sports.

Thank you and see you around 🙂 I hope I have more time now to dedicate to other stuff – including this blog and MMA analysis.

Duane “Bang” Ludwig – how does he work? (…as a head coach for Team Alpha Male that is)

The naming of (then) recently retired MMA fighter Duane “Bang” Ludwig to head coach at Team Alpha Male happened in December 2012. Since then I think the Alpha Male fighters record in the UFC is 15-1-0. That’s not bad. Especially in the light of the loss (Dillashaw vs Assuncao) being a VERY close one. So – on the contrary – that record is very good 🙂 So, obviously Duane Ludwing must be doing something right.

Tonight (14.12.2013) FOUR fighters from Alpha Male are fighting in the UFC (UFC on Fox 9): Joseph Benavidez in the title bout, Urijah Faber, Chad Mendez and Danny Castillo. While I can’t guarantee them all to win (noone could on that high level) I believe their chances are very good and they have all developed tremendously in the last year. This post will look a bit into HOW Bang has managed to achieve what is described here in the Cage Potato article in numbers. Numbers are artificial of course meaning all these are still subject to quite small sample sizes and most of the effects would not be statistically significant. However qualitatively there has been a lot of improvement in relatively short time.

 

I must say that what happens (and has happened) in the Alpha Male training rooms is a pure speculation on my part. I have read a few articles, looked at a few video clips which show glimpses of training. Fighting wise I’ve been always interested in Team Alpha Male fighters (I wonder why … being somewhat short and stocky grappling-based fighter myself 🙂 So I thought I’d look into those 14 fights and other info to analyze what it must be that Ludwig does. How do his teaching work within the context of more prominent Team Alpha Male fighters’ styles.

First of all lets look at what was there before. Before Ludwig, there was MASTER THONG. Yes, that’s what he is called. His real name is Thonglor Armatsena. That’s the dude:

I do not know him personally. I’ve seen him corner in UFC fights, I’ve seen him hold pads in a few videos. By that I must say he is quite a character (well look at the name he goes by). How much of that personality is real (which directly would transfer into training as well) and how much is an act I can not say.

What I can say is by the little info I have he seems to have a more traditional Muay Thai approach to training. Meaning the training was quite high volume in general (which of course matched with the wrestling work-ethic of most Team Alpha Male guys). He of course brought striking expertice compared to the skillset most of the guys already had. However traditional Eastern-influenced striking training emphasizes high volume, technical perfection in isolation and very standardized training. That is because there exists a quite universal view of “ideal” style in the Eastern-influenced martial arts mindset.

In traditional Muay Thai fights where fighters often “lock horns” walking each other down and seeing whoever comes out on top in exchanges from midrange. In MMA on the other hand the midrange exists for far shorter time – fighters more than often disengage or clinch to wrestle and strike from really close.

Watch Master Thong hold pads. He does move around but there are very stereotypical movement patterns and he almost always stands still while taking a combination.

Do you notice as well how similar his padwork patterns are for totally different people? Seeing him in TUF 19 one could witness even more of the same.

Duane Ludwig said about Alpha Male that “I’ve been handed a parking lot full of race cars.” While I believe that is true in some sense – bunch of high level athletes with good work ethic are a coach’s dream – I think there has been a great part in why the guys seem to be doing so much better in such a short time. Especially when quite a few of them could be considered “old dogs” to whom new tricks could be hard to teach if you consider the stereotype to be correct.

Duane Ludwig does move. He walks backwards when he holds pads. Opponent walking backwards is what happens when wrestling-based strikers press forward. He also forces a longer distance in between combinations and a longer more MMA-like distance when pressing forward himself as a padholder. Even though having trained and fought in thailand, Ludwig has always had a more “Dutch” or “Western” style of striking. That means more footwork, more pressing with the movement and while said movement is blocked then resetting outside the range. After which one can start again with footwork (getting proper angles), pressing from said angles and resetting if needed. That is quite the opposite to traditional Muay Thai “locking the horns” principle (which is also reinforced by full MT ruleset) and more suited for MMA where the typical distance between the fighters is longer than in Muay Thai (or even K1) as fighters are conscious of possible long distance lunging punches, kicks AND shooting for takedown. Also the midrange where “locking the horns” often happens in MT does not have so much of a place in MMA when the smart thing to do is to press forward when you are winning the exchange or back out if you are losing one.

You can witness it even in the super light open workout routine which is very close to the fight:

http://mmajunkie.com/2013/12/video-team-alpha-male-fighters-break-down-bouts-at-ufc-on-fox-9-workouts/

Also glimpses of that can be witnessed in the following story:

Having been a MMA fighter with such a diverse career and training experiences I believe Ludwing pays more attention to personal standup styles more compatible with the specific fighters grappling, physical attributes etc. All of this of course is far easier for a dedicated person in dedicated head coach role. It might be that Thong was just not involved enough in the whole game to be as considerate. It might be that MMA-specifics were more up to the fighters themselves – a viewpoint from which it is often very hard to really boost ones game with new skills.

However specifically I think this in a nutshell is what Duane “Bang” Ludwig has done with Team Alpha Male’s striking: by doing specific and fighter-specific drills and real quality padwork Ludwig has managed to teach Alpha Male fighters to …
1) … properly move forward while punching which results in more generated power and longer reach

2) … use (more) straight(er) punches while attacking to set up other attacks which results in longer reach and more functional punching combinations

3) … use kicks as a follow up when the opponent has been forced to move backward with 1) and 2)

4) … use MMA-specific takedowns alike to the ones described in this post when the opponent has been forced to move backward with 1) and 2) or as a counterattack when the opponent is baited into swinging from even a longer distance via 1) and 2)

So remember coaches: adapt to the style of the person you are coaching, focus on the fundamentals and give realistic feedback, resistance and movement EVEN when learning new details and techniques.

I hope tonight’s UFC will give me more than enough food for thought for MMA-wrestling analysis. Enjoy the fights! I know i will!

How Phil Davis managed to eek out the decision against Lyoto Machida on UFC163?

Okay… less trollingly: A Case study on how did Phil Davis’ takedown offence and Lyoto Machida’s takedown defence work against eachother? *

First of all – the outcome on the scorecards is controversial. After the fight I personally had the fight a draw (29:29 with the 1^st rd a draw, 2^nd Davis and 3^rd Machida). Despite me having judging and refereeing experience I mostly don’t watch every match as a judging exercise ’cause it tends to take some fun out of it so I might’ve been way off.

There is an excellent breakdown of the FightMetric scores over at Bleacherrreport (click). But we do know that despite being correct MOST of the time we couldn’t replace human judges with a machine in MMA. The sport is so diverse that the techniques can cancel eachother out in a way that “beancouting“ might get the decisions wrong in many enough cases.

Anyway. Weather you agree with the decision or not I think you agree that Davis must’ve done at least some remarkable things very correctly to be able to hang till the end and make it as competitive as it was. So in this post I will look into some things that Davis did and Machidon’t (sorry that was a bad one:) )

The very first thing which was also promptly noted by Brian Stann (who did excellent job commenting IMO) was that Davis was moving to his left, which is what an orthodox fighter should do against a southpaw (Machida). What Davis did correctly in the first and in the second round in addition to that was that he was not only strafing to the left but also cutting the corner. It is not only moving to the outside which opens up superior defensive and offensive position against other-handed fighter but also a slight angle.

  Stepping here…

  Slight angle here…

  Sample attack here…

That allowed Davis to throw kicks and punches while making Machida’s counters less effective. Machida of course has excellent understanding of distance and angles and he was cutting that angle off very often. Yet sometimes he was (too IMO) comfortable moving straight forward and also to his left which offered Davis the openings for if not more then demonstrating pressure and offence.

Somewhy in the third round the correct footwork was less present on Davis’ side and that allowed Machida to attack more. What was surprising to me was that Machida didn’t throw even more kicks than he did. Gaining superior angles on Davis in the third round would’ve been a good opportunity for that.

What interested me the most about the fight was how Davis’ wrestling was going to play against Machida’s excellent movement and takedown defence. I wasn’t able to gauge that aspect very well because somewhy Davis didn’t go for wrestling mode often. I won’t speculate on why, that’d be a stretch too long even for an armchair analyst like me.

However here’s my take on all the wrestling exchanges that happened in the fight.

Round 1 1:14 left in the round … there’s not much to talk about actually. A flurry and a knee which seemed more devastating than it was. Due to the knee however the attempted shot is way too low for anything good to come out of it. Let’s move on to more interesting things.

Round 1 0:53 left in the round Machida throws his left cross and Davis beautifully ducks under it bent sprint-style which I explained more in detail in the last post looking at Demetrious Johnson’s double leg takedowns. A literal second later Davis has good deep grips but not ideally deep hooking more around Mahida’s glutes as opposed to going all the way around his knees. Now two interesting things happen: Machida immediately starts his defence by pulling Davis upwards and wiggling his hips backwards. That manages him to get a left underhook on Davis’ right side. Because of grips being a bit shallow and Machida’s correct movement the initial power of that style of takedown is lost. However Davis immediately hooks with his left leg and after the first second-long struggle changes his direction to his right killing Machida’s left underhook with his right shoulder pressure. The direction change on the body pressure is what negates the defence here and makes the trip work. Compared to Mighty Mouse the direction change comes a bit too late. But we’re talking six weightclasses up here so it’s understandable.

2:55 left in the second round we see another takedown initiated by Davis, however Machida reacts well and the shot connects with shallow grips (red circles), a bit too bent body posture and Machida is able to pull Davis even higher away from the legs. In my opinion these types of takedowns are far easier to finish with two hands on the legs at least initially. Also deeper grips allow for more pulling on the legs which prevents the defender from wiggling hips backwards – a move that Machida is excellent at.

1:21 left in the second round Davis shoots again. This time it’s off a „fake high“ setup. At first it seems perfect: sprint speed is there, starting posture to drive forward & upward is good for this type of a shot, grips are deep at least for a second.

However Machida gets an underhook with his left arm on Davis’ right side …

…and because of Davis attempts to drive through to his left as opposed to changing direction to his right and killing the underhook with it Machida is able to lift with the underhook and negate the grips / drive and therefore the shot.

He even is able to totally peel off Davis’ left hand grip but Davis still gets an underhook and therefore can exit the exchange with a right uppercut.

0:21 left in the second round we see the second successful takedown of the fight but that’s not a shot but Davis gets deep double underhooks, Machida backs away correctly but Davis is able to drive him into cage wall and do an inside trip there. The nifty thing here is that I think Davis wanted to dhoot a double here under Machida’s strikes but this time immediately recognized that his grips are too high and Machida immediately pulls them even higher and then Davis immediately switched to high double underhooks. I’ll do more detailed cage wall stuff in the near future. Let’s hope some „boring“ clinch up against the wall battles ensue in which there is enough takedown, takedown defence and wall-specific striking action to be worthy of picking apart.

Third round 3:45 left Davis shoots again but Machida reacts with level changes, gets his arms as frames in front of Davis’s arms, Davis’s grips are too shallow, Machida lifts with overhooks and that means no takedown. Machida’s ability to lift with the overhook while using it as a frame to stop the sprint and ripping off the grip while at the same time moving his whole body circularily is very good and makes it hard to shoot on him.

3:07 left in the third round Davis get’s a pretty good shot but Machida has excellent body position (including underhook on his right) to sprawl forward completely crushing the sprint momentum and pushing Davis backward.

2:30 left in the third round Davis grabs Machida’s leg off a kick but has no drive whatsoever while Machida already has his arms acting as frames again so not much of a takedown threat there.

Starting at 2:01 left in the third we see something that took me quite a few rewinds to understand completely. First of all it seems that Machida throwing a knee (maybe start of a front kick?) and Davis going for a shot are initiated simultaneously. I really do not think that neither was intended as a counter to the other. A tiny bit later still in the same second we see that Davis has decent grips in place (though definately could be deeper) and his body position is excellent to follow through with the sprint / drive. However because Machida’s foot is coming back down after the kneestrike the grips are not as good as they initially seem. Machida is able to keep his base, again push with his left hand frame, lift with his right overhook, get in the left underhook and lift with that before Davis can kill it with direction change. Fantastic defensive use of frames and hip movement by Machida. We see the same thing play out twice in a row starting at 1:00 to 0:50 left in the third and again near the end of the round.

What surprised me about Davis’ game in this fight was not only the lack of takedown attempts in general but also that not once did he attempt to shoot or switch to a single leg takedown / high crotch takedown position which he has done previously with great success and which is easier to do against a southpaw (e.g. in his fight with Minotoro Nogueira).

So… this is how MMA sometimes works. I hope you got some interesting details out of a fight which maybe seemed less stellar to you and not very talk-worthy except the controversy about the decision. Maybe even I inspired you to rewatch and you got some more fuel to add to the arguments about the scorecards 🙂

P.S. Did any of you catch the Bellator Fight Master episode 7 on Wednesday? The fight between A. J. Matthews and Eric „Sideshow“ Bradley? Bradleys wrestling in that fight was an excellent display of „standard“ folkstyle/freestyle wrestling shoot also working in MMA context as compared to the „MMA wrestling shoot“ which I analyzed in the last post on the example of Demetrious Johnson.

* DISCLAIMER: I am not the author of nor do I own the pictures presented here on the purpose of educational example.

How was Johnson able to take down Moraga TEN times?

Study of „unstoppable“ MMA takedowns – „perfect“ timing and „unparalleled“ athleticism. Case study: Demetrious Johnson vs John Moraga (and a little bit of Georges St. Pierre)

What got me onto writing this article is that there are some (finer?) points about (freestyle) wrestling takedowns in MMA context about which I’ve not seen anyone write just yet. What even kind of rubs me in a wrong way is that in MMA media (which starts from the broadcast booth) is emphasizing „otherwordly“ athleticism and timing as some kind of inherent traits which are only applicable to the selected few. And these ideas then go and then circle in the MMA forums and social media echochamber reinforcing the myth.

While in some cases it might be more true e.g. I personally think Jon Jones is a really unique athlete from whom there is a little less to study and copy from for your „average“ MMA-practicioner or aspiring fighter in most cases I think it diverges attention away from the technical aspects of what these athletes are actually doing in the specific MMA context and therefore it’s holding back the development of technical knowledge which can be passed on to most of the people practicing MMA .

More specifically in this short written piece I will analyze the takedowns of Demetrious „Mighty Mouse“ Johnson which he nailed in his last title defence against John Moraga on UFC on Fox 8 last Saturday 27^th of July 2013. In my opinion the same elements can be seen in the takedown game of Georges St. Pierre so I will complement my examples with pieces from his matches.

It’s no doubt that Johnson and St. Pierre are excellent athletes. They are explosive. They are fast and strong. However that are not the sole reasons why they are able to land takedowns with such great efficiency. They do have excellent timing which is honed with hours and hours of MMA practice. They do have great setups with strikes (especially in the case of GSP). One cannot teach explosive, fast and strong via a blogpost. One cannot teach timing like that even though ideas about setups and timing can be spoken about in written word (that might be a thing for the future to come if this blogpost is well recieved 🙂

However, I think there are some ideas and nuances about the technical execution of these takedowns which can systematically be taught. (Of course it needs hours of experimenting and practice afterwards).

So… here it goes (currently the post lacks a bit of .gif material look to the end if you are willing to help out):

First of all – I personally think the takedowns from the legs executed in MMA are still „freestyle wrestling takedowns“. Meaning they are best first learned in freestyle wrestling enviroment. Freestyle wrestling teaches proper fundamental body positions and angles. These positions and angles are well-complemented by Greco-Roman wrestling.

However – MMA context is a little bit different and that’s why …

1) … the takedowns look a little bit different and have different technical nuances.
2) … we see „lesser wrestlers“ be successful against „better wrestlers“ sometimes even when there is no big discrepancy in striking at least „on paper“ (e.g. Johnson vs Moraga or GSP against well… wrestlers)

I’ll elaborate. First some general differences between wrestling in freestyle wrestling and wrestling in MMA:

1) In freestyle wrestling the stance is much more bent and lower. In MMA the stance is more vertical.

2) In freestyle the distance is shorter and most takedowns come from setups in the tie-ups (clinch). In MMA lots of takedowns happen from the clinch as well but of those a high percentage happen on the cage wall. Most takedowns off the wall happen from the strikes, especially freestyle takedowns using arms on the legs which are the ones I’m looking into today.

3) Also a point not to be overlooked is that in freestyle you get far lesser points if you hit a takedown outside the bounds. In MMA the fighting area is usually bigger and even if you go to the boundaries – it’s a good thing. You can follow up with your game on the cage wall.

Therefore as opposed to freestyles double leg shoot some key points which for example could be described as:

• Level change low
• Penetrate deep with the knee
• Cut the corner
• Drive!

In the MMA context these do not apply directly. As the stance is higher you …

• level change just as much as you need to to drive your upper body
• bend more at the waist
• this allows to SPRINT FORWARD
• once you get your grips you JUMP FORWARD at a slight angle while pressuring with your upper body
  
• if that fails you use your SPRINT + ANGLE CHANGE
• if that also fails you change direction to reverse and finish in a single leg (running the pipe) style takedown (while using the double leg grip)
• all this happens while you try to suck / scoop up your opponents legs (especially on the side with the deeper grip)

Very nice example of this is the recent Demetrious „Mighty Mouse“ Johnson vs John Moraga fight which I am describing below and also Georges St. Pierre’s takedown game is based on these types of takedowns. Watch any of his fights and you’ll see 🙂 Of course GSP does possess good strength and often is able to complete “more traditional” lifting double leg takedowns as well but even then his shot is still more “shallow” (I’ll try to get some gifs). Hope you got to see the nice fight from last Saturday ’cause that’s where from the following examples come:

Johnson vs Moraga, 10 takedowns one by one. (if you have a chance to pause and rewind the actual fight it helps:)

Round 1:
From the beginning we see Johnson switching stances often (a topic worthy of a full article on it’s own) and using his trademark fast clinchwork with underhooks and especially collarties which he uses more efficiently and often than your „average“ „wrestler in MMA“. The first takedown comes in 3:01 into the first round. Johnson hits it off the cage wall which is a bit different than my focus here but we already see that once he gets his grips into position, the initial movement (pull) is immediately followed by a circular angle change via moving his body to the left and continued pull. Working offensively and defensively on the wall is for the past 2 years my favourite topic in MMA to study and teach but that is to be written about some other time.

Round 2:
0:25 into the round we first see the second takedown by Johnson. This is the style I’m talking here. On the first glance it’d be a takedown easily attributed to „excellent timing“ as Johnson goes under Moraga’s attack. However the nuances are clearly present here. Johnson hits the double while Moraga is standing southpaw which makes it even more impressive as doubles are harder to hit against opposite stance. If you pause at the frame at 0:23 (4:37 to go) you see the following: Johnsons hips are way higher and legs more straight than in case of a „freestyle shoot“ and he is more bent at the waist which even results in a slightly less than ideal straightness of the back at the point of impact. However Johnson immediately starts to straighten the back and attempting to lift / push with the shoulder and also immediately starts taking an angle circularily to the left. The head moves from the outside to the center and deep arm grips scoop Moraga’s legs in while Johnson’s upper body drives up & forward and it’s done!

3:03 into the round (1:57 to go) we see the third takedown by Johnson but that’s a suplex throw. Not the subject of this post:)

3:54 (1:06 to go) we see the fourth takedown in the fight. This one could be easily attributed to Johnson’s speed or athleticism. What makes it work is actually a faint on the higher level which is not very well seen due to the camera angle switching. It is followed by level change and penetration step which in no doubt are very fast but they are so fast because the level change is only as deep as it needs to be. Again the hips stay a bit higher, bend at the waist is a bit sharper and that allows Johnson to „sprint“ to Moraga’s hips. Now it’s followed by some more magic: Johnson’s right arm is in deeper (as it should be against opponent in same stance), he steps his right leg to the outside as going for the lift. However because of …
a) the more shallow level change and less straight back
b) the immense forward speed you get by this „sprinting“ entry

…it’s harder to lift as opposed to keep sprinting forward while scooping up the leg(s). In this case Moraga’s left leg with his right arm. This is helped by Johnson’s minor but still present immediate circular direction change to his left. Key points still: arm scooping up the leg, upper body driving forward at the necessary angle towards opponent’s leg which is better controlled (in this case Moraga’s left leg).

Round 3:

Fifth takedown comes at 1:25 into the round 3 (3:35 to go). Generally more of the same as the fourth one. However now we more clearly see why Johnson really shines – he goes in the same way but this time Moraga has a weak underhook with his right arm on Johnson’s left side. Johnson immediately feels that, changes his angle and runs to his right to complete the takedown via smothering Moraga’s underhook. Johnson then manages to change angles again when Moraga is already going down and jumps into full guard which negates potential escapes using (even a weak) underhook.

Johnson’s sixth takedown is a beautiful reversal with 1:55 to go in the third which succeeds because of excellent pivot with the underhook. However not the topic of this post.

Round 4:
Seventh takedown by Johnson starts 0:23 into the round and it’s quite a carbon copy of the fourth. His right arm becomes the scooping pivot point around which he runs to his left while pressuring with his shoulder and manages to land in half guard on that side. Mind you that GSP while using the same pressure prefers to change to his right and land in half guard on that side.

Eighth takedown by Johnson comes at 2:28 (2:32 to go) and is similar to the fifth. However some interesting details: the straighter legs and more bent waist are especially evident here. Johnson still fakes high, goes for the legs but Moraga gets a far stronger underhook this time on Johnson’s left side. Johnson feels that after a split second, stops going forward and circles back similar to „single leg running the pipe“ motion. Because of created downward and backward spirale pressure, Moraga never gets his underhook going. Also Johnson again negates the use of underhook on the ground as well going the other way after the takedown has been completed and landing in full guard.

4:35 (0:25 to go) we see the nineth takedown by Johnson. Deep arm grips and not much angle change + sprinting is not needed as he gets hold of Moragas legs while Moraga is coming forward a bit too recklessly wanting to do more damage. Johnson is bent at the waist, legs bent slightly and therefore manages to do a forward hop while pressuring with his upper body. This is the „MMA double leg“ which happens if you get in deep against an opponent who is heavily pressuring forward with strikes. If that first motion fails or even fails to start you continue with the sprinting + angle changes seen in the previous takedowns by Johnson.

Round 5:
Tenth and final takedown by Johnson comes 42 seconds into the final round (4:18 to go) and this is the first time during the fight we see Johnson stepping really low with his knee on the penetration step. However he still finishes by turning to his left and scooping up Moraga’s left leg. A finish which is quite rare in wrestling context as the shoulder impact on the penetration step does rarely fold the opponent from the waist as much as it does against a more upright striking opponent.

In conclusion
There is quite a bit technical nuances to takedowns and clinchwork in MMA context. Even to as something „simple“ as a double leg shot. Those differences (less level change, level change more from the waist, more sprinting forward, more circular angle changes) can be described, be taught and be learned for those who want to implement these techniques in MMA.

I hope you liked the post, feel free to comment and I hope I managed to describe something which you might’ve been thinking yourself but maybe were a bit distracted by big adjectives like „lightning fast“ „ultra explosive“ „so athletic“ etc.

(Un)fortunately I am on vacation right now in remote countryside with only 3G connection and a laptop. So it was not in my technical proficiency to create gif’s of most of the takedowns. It’s easy to you? Cool mate! Please create them, I have pointed out the rounds and seconds, upload them somewhere and leave the link in the comments.

P.S. The pioneer of these types of entries and finishes in my opinion is actually Ricardo Arona. Higher stance is present, driving through in a different way than in freestyle is also present. However Arona …
1) mostly used his outside (left) hand/arm higher than the hip which allowed his opponents to defend via hopping if the initial lift semi high crotch style didn’t succeed e.g. Arona vs. Sokudjou. PILT
2) lacked the change of directions so present in Mighty Mouse’s and GSP’s game and possessed only one angle + lift
Couldn’t find .gif-s of any his takedowns 😦

P.P.S.
I think if Jordan Burroughs (watch his highlight here) at some point enters MMA and is able to implement the angles and at least develop rudimentary feel of timing off opponents and one’s own strikes he could be really really successful with his takedowns. However if he directly wants to implement his bulldozing entries he might encounter some difficulties.