Clinch fighting

Mr Rick

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I'm trying to improve my ability and knowledge of fighting in the clinch. Does anyone know any good YouTube channels or website with information on clinch fighting?

Single collar or Thai plum

Or any helpful tips that might help. Cheers
 
Join a MT gym, it’s the only way
 
I train Mma, I rarely get time to go to the Thai boxing classes. So I was planing on doing a bit extra with a friend who also works shifts. Obviously in an ideal world I would but this was just to supliment really.
 
http://8limbs.us/?s=clinch < this is the best resource by a long shot. She's the most recorded/documented fighter you'll ever come across - everything about how she trains is updated right from the beginning of her 200 fight career - and she's a clinch fighter, so there are tons of videos of her training it with various muay thai legends, and articles about it
 
http://8limbs.us/?s=clinch < this is the best resource by a long shot. She's the most recorded/documented fighter you'll ever come across - everything about how she trains is updated right from the beginning of her 200 fight career - and she's a clinch fighter, so there are tons of videos of her training it with various muay thai legends, and articles about it

Had a quick look at that website. It seems perfect. What an incredible site! Thanks for the info!
 
Awesome, thanks again. Crazy what she has done and achieved. Fair play to her!
 
I would argue the MT clinch is borderline irrelevant in MMA due to wrestling. MT is basically the exact opposite of what you want to do when wrestling.

So clinch = Greco Roman with knees, basically. Probly have better advice on the grappling forum.

If you already were excellent at MT clinch, that's one thing. But for MMA, I'd learn the MMA clinch. It's kind of like people asking how to learn karate so they can fight like Machida, when in reality he spent 40 years perfecting something not that useful for MMA.
 
I would argue the MT clinch is borderline irrelevant in MMA due to wrestling. MT is basically the exact opposite of what you want to do when wrestling.

So clinch = Greco Roman with knees, basically. Probly have better advice on the grappling forum.

If you already were excellent at MT clinch, that's one thing. But for MMA, I'd learn the MMA clinch. It's kind of like people asking how to learn karate so they can fight like Machida, when in reality he spent 40 years perfecting something not that useful for MMA.
It doesn't hurt to learn. Rich Franklin got merked by Anderson when he didn't know the day 1 basics to addressing it, wouldn't be good for TS to be put in that scenario
 
It doesn't hurt to learn. Rich Franklin got merked by Anderson when he didn't know the day 1 basics to addressing it, wouldn't be good for TS to be put in that scenario

The thing is JJ (at least JJJ, I assume BJJ) teaches you the same "plum" position as MT, and MMA should be giving you some basic understanding of defending against knees(!). Hmm, I guess with that in mind, dedicating some youtube "training" to the MT clinch makes sense. But I wouldn't spend inordinate amounts of time on it in practice.
 
The thing is JJ (at least JJJ, I assume BJJ) teaches you the same "plum" position as MT, and MMA should be giving you some basic understanding of defending against knees(!). Hmm, I guess with that in mind, dedicating some youtube "training" to the MT clinch makes sense. But I wouldn't spend inordinate amounts of time on it in practice.
I'd say about 30min of specific clinch work after class for a camp length is decent enough to get the bare basics. I trained a new fighter for his bout, and that was basically what I did, and he ended up getting a pretty nice double dollar and basic escapes.

I've had a couple of MT fights in the states and the majority of the gyms there happen to be MMA gyms instead of pure MT gyms. Their grappling clinch was definitely there, but the lack of Thai clinch was troubling.

The most common tactics were:
-Trying to body hook their way out of the clinch, it didn't damage me or the others since there's barely any hip rotation into it from that position

-cross arm blocking the knees (ouch). One guy fractured his forearms against my teammate.
 
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It's kind of like people asking how to learn karate so they can fight like Machida, when in reality he spent 40 years perfecting something not that useful for MMA.
he spent years also learning bjj wrestling and mma. he also got the championship level using mostly karate. alot of people who just trained mma can't say that. like rory macdonald, who lost to a guy who also for the most part uses karate.
 
he spent years also learning bjj wrestling and mma. he also got the championship level using mostly karate. alot of people who just trained mma can't say that. like rory macdonald, who lost to a guy who also for the most part uses karate.

I wasn't dissing Machida, I'm saying there are more direct paths for MMA fighting. I am literally a better kicker than most UFC fighters, because I "wasted" half my life doing things like TKD. Obviously I am not in the UFC.

Edit for clarity: Doing a specific style for a loooong time like TMA practioners tends to do, gets you freaky abilities. But how good would someone be if instead of spending 20 years on TKD and 2 years on MMA, they spent 20 years on MMA, and dabbled 2 years in other styles? Better at MMA IMO.

Maybe a better way to put it is, "How do I get to be as good at wrestling as Cejudo?" You don't, you work on MMA wrestling and do the best you can.
 
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Don't worry I'm not looking to make it the main part of my game or anything. Im just looking to improve and realised I have a huge hole there that needs filling in. I appreciate all the advice. No one wants to be rich franklin'd!
 
I would argue the MT clinch is borderline irrelevant in MMA due to wrestling. MT is basically the exact opposite of what you want to do when wrestling.

So clinch = Greco Roman with knees, basically. Probly have better advice on the grappling forum.

If you already were excellent at MT clinch, that's one thing. But for MMA, I'd learn the MMA clinch. It's kind of like people asking how to learn karate so they can fight like Machida, when in reality he spent 40 years perfecting something not that useful for MMA.

Can't agree on this one - Overeem, Matt Brown and Demetrious Johnson have had very good success with it - keep in mind proper muay thai clinching looks more like greco with knees and elbows (when it comes to positioning) than most people probably realise.

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Here notice how he pushes and controls with his forearms into Baugotinov's shoulders to move

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He does it again here, bicep control on the right both lifting it out of the way so Henry can't gain control and then covering it to land his knee.
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Keep in mind most of those gifs were mainly using the plum, which is poor for control in pure muay thai because of how easy it is to reverse.

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Holding a single collar rather than a double means you can frame and keep your opponent off you and land elbows
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Tricky muay thai sweeps too.

Keep in mind that if you learn muay thai clinching and do it a lot with your MMA training it will only put you ahead of the curve, it's not so much that it's hard to learn so much as it is that a lot of western gyms just don't bother teaching it properly - but you can learn a lot if you're practising it regularly and looking at tips online, even if you're gym doesn't teach the subtleties too well.

But out of those three fighters, only Overeem came into MMA already knowing Thai clinching - the rest of them learned it - and I think it's pretty accessible, most MMA gyms are the bog standard MT/Wrestling/BJJ combination anyhow.
 
MT clinch in mma is something you need to know how to escape and avoid at least.

Good discussion itt
 
Can't agree on this one - Overeem, Matt Brown and Demetrious Johnson have had very good success with it - keep in mind proper muay thai clinching looks more like greco with knees and elbows (when it comes to positioning) than most people probably realise.

Keep in mind that if you learn muay thai clinching and do it a lot with your MMA training it will only put you ahead of the curve, it's not so much that it's hard to learn so much as it is that a lot of western gyms just don't bother teaching it properly - but you can learn a lot if you're practising it regularly and looking at tips online, even if you're gym doesn't teach the subtleties too well.

This is what happens when you introduce real Thai style clinch work to MMA.

 
Can't agree on this one - and other good stuff.

For every great example of clinch work you can find, you can find a hundred other examples of fighters losing position after trying to get a MT clinch. I just cringe every time I see someone attempting it. In the failed instances, at best it's a waste of time and it gets shucked off, at worst it could cost you the round via a TD, or even the fight.

I don't think it's a critical skill. If it's super intriguing for a particular fighter and it comes easily to their fighting style, great. If it's not something that almost immediately is useful for you, I'd just do some more wrestling.
 
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