Mixed Martial Arts observation from UFC 98
UFC 98 was a pretty spectacular bunch of fights. Odds are you will be, and probably are already hearing a lot about it.
In particular, the performance by Lyoto Machita was really, really amazing.
But you’ll hear plenty about that from a lot of other posters. I want to write about something else I watched that I think was great to learn from:
Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. Both of these guys really showed us something spectacular. If you watched the fight, you might assume that I am going to comment on Serra’s striking. You would be wrong.
The thing about Serra that I saw in that fight was the way he would drop instantly into a very aggressive guard. Each time Hughes dropped Serra to the ground they would land with Serra who, although on bottom, was already advancing his position and threatening Hughes by the time they even landed. I think we can all learn a lot from that. The guard can be a place to rest, regroup, gather your wits, and protect yourself. But we have all seen and done that. Serra gave us a reminder that the guard can be oh sop much more. I think that this fact more that anything kept Serra in the fight.
Hughes was great as well. What I really like from Hughes is that he showed everyone that there are actually ways to take a person down other than the damned double leg takedown that everyone tries. I personally practice Judo, but also have great respect for the strong, upper-body throws of Greco Roman wrestling. It was great to see Hughes using more of these throws than we normally see in an MMA bout (and Serra pulled off a nice one as well.)
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