So allow me to interrupt the thread to finally reply to some of the notions tossed around using my name here. Only because I do not want it confused what my
actual principals of fighting are. It seems a lot of things are being lost in translation, as some of you should keep in mind you're speaking with someone in Nuke whose first language is not English, and a lot of times there are better ways to word what he's trying to say. Or, things are not being said in their right context. Contexts that were established in Nuke's older threads which it seems a few people are not bothering to read even if only to see my input/corrections. Hence, arguments are being re-hashed again and again. Arguments which Nuke himself has a VERY difficult time not entertaining. Nuke also does not have the benefit of training with me in-person. If he did, a lot of the lingering stuff he does would be addressed and repaired a lot faster. The way things are, he's always in some way going to be left on his own to figure things out. But that he wants to figure things out with regards to these methods is why he's so adamant about not abandoning them for what would seem like more convenient practices.
So here we go:
I have not, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be and advocate of fighting
WITH THE HANDS DOWN. Did I state that clearly enough? Do I need to state it again? But I think many people are confused as to what "hands up" and "hands down" actually mean. Many of you seem to carry the notion that if your hands aren't glued to your face, then they're down. Which is stupid. You want to see hands down? Look up Naseem Hamed, he fought with his hands down. Here is ME, in MY stance with a guy I worked with in his:
The rear hand I keep within thumb distance of the chin, so if it needs to be brought up, it takes about a blink. Lead hand is
OUT not
DOWN. Get it?
Out not
down. There's an incredibly huge difference. And many of you have seen videos where I instruct students to keep their lead hand OUT. I have maybe two students whom I allow to keep it down, but that's primarily because they do it as a trap. And they're educated on HOW to make it a trap, and not a liability. They do not do such a thing out of ignorance.
- So how do I
actually feel about hand placement? What I've said numerous times, but almost never gets acknowledged (especially when Nuke says it), is that I do not advocate the hands being up
for the purpose of primary defense. Defense, as I teach it, is first maintained by controlling distance, which Nuke currently does poorly. However, no more poorly than anyone with the same level of experience. Second principal of defense is
POSITIONING. Hands are a last resort, to be used when the first two fail.
- But hey, so and so had their hands up at this precise moment in time: Yes of course. As stated above hands can be used to obstruct a blow. So can elbows and shoulders. A well-timed tuck of the chin can direct a blow to a cheekbone or a forehead, harder parts that don't hurt as bad, and the tucking can brace the neck better. However, when you see a guy like a Mike McCallum with his rear hand up catching jabs with it and striking back, it might serve to really watch a few times and ask yourself if what you're seeing is what's happening.
Eddie Futch did NOT teach catching the jab (something passed down to Benton, used by Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, and McCallum most notably, the first two used it to defeat Muhammad Ali) as a means of defending oneself against the jab. In other words it wasn't meant as a BLOCK. The reason to catch the jab is to learn where your opponent is. Try it sometime. When your opponent jabs you, use your rear-hand to catch it. Get him jabbing into it. Then throw your own jab back, or whatever you want depending on how comfortable you feel. Frazier threw hooks, Mike liked to right hand over the jab
with the same hand he caught the jab with. Quite a feat, but when you know where the guy is and have his timing down because you've hypnotized him into throwing his jab at your glove, you can do what you want. As for Mike's fight with Julian Jackson, he put his hands up because Julian both blitzed and hurt him. He was hurt, Julian was rushing him, at the moment he had literally no other choice. Do we cover up when we've run out of choices? For sure, any human would. That doesn't mean it's the BEST option or even should be a primary option.
Eddie Futch was a very big proponent of
DEFENSE WITHOUT THE OCCUPYING THE HANDS. So am I. In this view, the hands are offensive weapons. And they ARE up, but they're not up for defense, they're up to punch the other fella. If they're not actually punching the other fella, they're up to threaten him. If you look at the above photo again, anyone who stands in front of me is going to feel like they have a gun or knife pointed at them. Same for anyone who stands in front of the guy I worked with. They're going to
feel threatened. That's why our hands are up, but if you attempt to hit us we're not going to compromise that threat to block your blow. It's more optimal to make a subtle change in positioning, while maintaining control of distance if possible, enough to make you miss and then make the threat become actual damage.
- In terms of kicks: Once upon a time I used to do kicking Arts. I was actually pretty obsessed with them. So was Dadi. So is SAAMAG. No one here is entirely ignorant to kicks, not even Nuke after getting dropped by that Kyokushin guy. However his notion of using the stances or principals he prefers and taking notions from such arts as TKD, Boxing, etc., I don't understand why that thought process would be shat upon, that's the ESSENCE of what MMA is supposed to be.
Methinks sometimes you guys respond to this thread as if it's someone who is claiming to already be at the top, rather than someone starting at the bottom and wanting to go there. It's like there's this constant reminding of "hey, you're NOT at the top, you're NOT even that good!!" Really? That needs to be said to a guy who posted footage of himself getting knocked on his ass?
- Opposite-handed fighting: The photo above is not a deception. I myself AM a Southpaw. 5/6 of the people who stand right in front of me for instruction purposes are not. So why would I exclude something that's important for a Southpaw? But then, if you remember the first thing I said, why would I even say that having the hands
DOWN as a general principal is optimal for
ANYONE? However, if I'm fighting an orthodox guy I'm not going to glue my right hand to my forehead, because I want him threatened by it. Whether or not he is depends on if I can effectively face the center line on him, and
maintain my positioning and control of distance.
However, I must say that tacking up Pernell Whitaker and Michael Nunn's fighting ability to their reflexes OR speed is a great insult to their teachers (one of whom was Georgie Benton himself). Especially considering that Pernell was still extremely difficult to hit when he was fighting younger and even faster people than he was.
I also do not agree that Floyd has problems against Southpaws because he keeps his hand down. He historically had problems with Southpaws because he often gave up his positioning against them, but that had more to do with his over all body positioning. His hand positioning was an afterthought to that. Put it like this, recently I broke down why Dawson had huge problems with Ward despite that Dawson was both bigger, and faster than Andre Ward. Take the problems I noted about Dawson (Southpaw) and reverse them, and you have the source of Floyd's historical problems against Southpaws. But Floyd's adjustment (until he fought Ortiz) was a simple, but effective one. Stop going backwards, go on the attack. He ended up beating a lot of them up by taking away the initiative their better positions gave them.
- Why would this work in MMA? Well, of course kicking range adds a lot of x-factors, and in anyone I'd ever train for fighting in MMA, that would have to be accounted for as well as being taken down. However, distance, positioning, landing punches, those 3 things are EXTREMELY relevant in EVERY facet of MMA. Even in the clinch, even on the ground. But I must also clear up something about Arni, he
is not my student yet. He's Dadi's student, I only worked with him over the summer in prep for his comeback. And I will be his Boxing trainer once he comes to the UFC here in Vegas. Now that that's also cleared-up, sure he had some problems with leg kicks, just as Mike had problems with Julian Jackson. Arni is also a slow-starter AND had rust. However, what Murrie was doing was VERY effective, and had he kept Arni either too far, or too close, he'd have maybe at most lost an ugly decision, or won via whatever he could do off of the leg-kicks. But hey, that's the risk we take. It's a fight, you're going to get hit and probably hurt. Arni almost got killed in the first round against Siver, but managed the best victory of his career in that same bout. It's all on how the over all package comes together, even if we don't like some of the smaller details.
