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Cuba’s Mikael Perez entered MMA after an amateur wrestling career that saw him win a gold medal in the 2009 Pan American Championships at 60 kg and compete in the 2008 Olympics, though he was eliminated in the first round. Perez is the current LFA Flyweight champion. He defeated Sid Bice for the title that was vacated by Roberto Sanchez upon his signing with the UFC. Though Perez is 34 years old, he’s still very athletic for his age with only two years of professional MMA competition under his belt. Given his inexperience, Perez is still in the stage of his career where vast improvements can be expected from fight-to-fight.
Takedown Game
As you may have guessed, Perez’s wrestling skill makes up the brunt of his offense in MMA. Perez works primarily off an incredibly strong right-side underhook, using it to control opponents against the cage and drive into takedowns in the open. He also makes excellent use of collar ties to land strikes in the clinch.
The knee tap is Perez’s bread and butter and he hits it out of the clinch better than perhaps anyone in MMA. His underhooking arm drives his opponent’s weight onto their rear leg, which he blocks with his far hand to take them over. Pay attention to how high Perez’s underhooking arm gets. As soon as he starts the knee tap, he drives that underhook up into the armpit, which raises their shoulder and prevents them from countering with a strong whizzer. Perez also does a great job at denying his opponent ties that allow them to exert leverage against his drive. He’ll use a collar tie or elbow/bicep control to keep his opponents from obtaining an underhook with which they can resist his forward pressure.
Perez uses a collar tie to land knee taps on the opposite leg, driving his opponent’s weight over the leg with a forearm on their neck.
Perez’s knee tap is reminiscent of Iranian Olympic gold medalist, Hassan Yazdani Cherati, who is known for his use of a strong underhook to drive opponents back. In wrestling, obtaining the underhook is a battle in itself, as you must first bypass an opponent’s grip-fighting and control ties. In MMA however, fighters tend to willingly fall into an over/under position whenever they find themselves in close range due to the threat of strikes preventing extended grip-fighting sequences.
The strength of Perez’s knee tap is reinforced by his incredible chain wrestling. The basic idea behind chain wrestling is the same as that behind combination striking. Against competent opponents, your first attack is likely to fail, but the opponent’s defense leaves openings for further attacks. Perez chains into and out of his knee tap brilliantly, often finishing it by stepping in and blocking the near leg or stepping into an outside trip.
Here Perez’s opponent tries to turn out of the knee tap and Perez finishes with a standing suck back. He keeps his left arm around the waist, keeping his opponent tight to him, and uses his right hand to grip the collar and pull him down, while blocking the near-side leg with his right knee.
Perez will use his failed shots as opportunities to solidify an underhook, before hitting the knee tap as he builds his base up to the feet.
While Perez’s distance striking is largely ineffective, he’s found a way to successfully connect it to his wrestling. He hits most of his shots from outside by throwing a long straight or overhand and stepping through into southpaw on the shot. Often his lead will cause opponents to pull their weight over their rear foot to avoid the punch or return with a counter, both of which leave them in a poor position to defend the takedown. Perez will step his rear leg forward directly outside of his opponent’s lead leg, while his head and body go to the opposite side and force the opponent over their blocked leg.
In the Clinch
Though Perez’s distance striking is rudimentary at best, his strong clinch game allows him to create opportunities to land strikes. Perez works effectively from the collar tie, pulling his opponent’s head down into uppercuts or using a double collar tie to land knees to the body and head.
Perez has a great eye for transitions, flowing between control positions in the clinch and using the transitions between those transient positions to create openings for strikes. There used to be a time in MMA when a double collar tie meant immediate danger of a finish, but as the skill of practitioners has evolved, the meta-game has shifted more toward capitalizing on transitions. A quick look at the fights of Demetrious Johnson or Jon Jones – the most effective clinch fighters in MMA – is all it takes to realize that the ability to flow between control positions and capitalize on openings created in transition is a necessity for success in the clinch at an elite level.
Skill in transitions is often something that comes later in a fighter’s career, after they’ve already developed sound striking and grappling games, as it represents a link between the two distinct phases. It’s uncommon to see a fighter with Perez’s inexperience who is so skilled in blending striking and grappling in transition, while still remaining a relatively unsound striker.
In the first sequence, Perez’s opponent breaks the double collar tie by threading his arm through for the underhook. Perez immediately controls the shoulder while he leans back to create space and sends an elbow through the opening. In the second sequence, his opponent raises his arm and straightens it out before changing levels to slip out of the underhook. As he changes levels, Perez drags him down further to land a knee. His opponent then crossfaces, which creates an opening for Perez to land an uppercut, and finally Perez connects with a clean right as his opponent attempts to circle out.
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One detail that makes a frequent appearance in Perez’s fights are his transitions from the back. He’ll often control opponents with a seat-belt grip on the ground and maintain the grip when they use the cage to stand up, transitioning to a double collar tie as they turn into him. Perez’s left arm is placed in the armpit, preventing opponents from quickly turning out by driving their elbow down, while his right hand around the neck leaves him in perfect position to catch a collar tie. Against Trent Meaux, Perez demonstrated a variation of this, locking up an arm triangle and using it to trip Meaux back to the ground.
Continued here...
Takedown Game
As you may have guessed, Perez’s wrestling skill makes up the brunt of his offense in MMA. Perez works primarily off an incredibly strong right-side underhook, using it to control opponents against the cage and drive into takedowns in the open. He also makes excellent use of collar ties to land strikes in the clinch.
The knee tap is Perez’s bread and butter and he hits it out of the clinch better than perhaps anyone in MMA. His underhooking arm drives his opponent’s weight onto their rear leg, which he blocks with his far hand to take them over. Pay attention to how high Perez’s underhooking arm gets. As soon as he starts the knee tap, he drives that underhook up into the armpit, which raises their shoulder and prevents them from countering with a strong whizzer. Perez also does a great job at denying his opponent ties that allow them to exert leverage against his drive. He’ll use a collar tie or elbow/bicep control to keep his opponents from obtaining an underhook with which they can resist his forward pressure.
Perez uses a collar tie to land knee taps on the opposite leg, driving his opponent’s weight over the leg with a forearm on their neck.
Perez’s knee tap is reminiscent of Iranian Olympic gold medalist, Hassan Yazdani Cherati, who is known for his use of a strong underhook to drive opponents back. In wrestling, obtaining the underhook is a battle in itself, as you must first bypass an opponent’s grip-fighting and control ties. In MMA however, fighters tend to willingly fall into an over/under position whenever they find themselves in close range due to the threat of strikes preventing extended grip-fighting sequences.
The strength of Perez’s knee tap is reinforced by his incredible chain wrestling. The basic idea behind chain wrestling is the same as that behind combination striking. Against competent opponents, your first attack is likely to fail, but the opponent’s defense leaves openings for further attacks. Perez chains into and out of his knee tap brilliantly, often finishing it by stepping in and blocking the near leg or stepping into an outside trip.
Here Perez’s opponent tries to turn out of the knee tap and Perez finishes with a standing suck back. He keeps his left arm around the waist, keeping his opponent tight to him, and uses his right hand to grip the collar and pull him down, while blocking the near-side leg with his right knee.
Perez will use his failed shots as opportunities to solidify an underhook, before hitting the knee tap as he builds his base up to the feet.
While Perez’s distance striking is largely ineffective, he’s found a way to successfully connect it to his wrestling. He hits most of his shots from outside by throwing a long straight or overhand and stepping through into southpaw on the shot. Often his lead will cause opponents to pull their weight over their rear foot to avoid the punch or return with a counter, both of which leave them in a poor position to defend the takedown. Perez will step his rear leg forward directly outside of his opponent’s lead leg, while his head and body go to the opposite side and force the opponent over their blocked leg.
In the Clinch
Though Perez’s distance striking is rudimentary at best, his strong clinch game allows him to create opportunities to land strikes. Perez works effectively from the collar tie, pulling his opponent’s head down into uppercuts or using a double collar tie to land knees to the body and head.
Perez has a great eye for transitions, flowing between control positions in the clinch and using the transitions between those transient positions to create openings for strikes. There used to be a time in MMA when a double collar tie meant immediate danger of a finish, but as the skill of practitioners has evolved, the meta-game has shifted more toward capitalizing on transitions. A quick look at the fights of Demetrious Johnson or Jon Jones – the most effective clinch fighters in MMA – is all it takes to realize that the ability to flow between control positions and capitalize on openings created in transition is a necessity for success in the clinch at an elite level.
Skill in transitions is often something that comes later in a fighter’s career, after they’ve already developed sound striking and grappling games, as it represents a link between the two distinct phases. It’s uncommon to see a fighter with Perez’s inexperience who is so skilled in blending striking and grappling in transition, while still remaining a relatively unsound striker.
In the first sequence, Perez’s opponent breaks the double collar tie by threading his arm through for the underhook. Perez immediately controls the shoulder while he leans back to create space and sends an elbow through the opening. In the second sequence, his opponent raises his arm and straightens it out before changing levels to slip out of the underhook. As he changes levels, Perez drags him down further to land a knee. His opponent then crossfaces, which creates an opening for Perez to land an uppercut, and finally Perez connects with a clean right as his opponent attempts to circle out.
https://gfycat.com/realunfitgodwit
One detail that makes a frequent appearance in Perez’s fights are his transitions from the back. He’ll often control opponents with a seat-belt grip on the ground and maintain the grip when they use the cage to stand up, transitioning to a double collar tie as they turn into him. Perez’s left arm is placed in the armpit, preventing opponents from quickly turning out by driving their elbow down, while his right hand around the neck leaves him in perfect position to catch a collar tie. Against Trent Meaux, Perez demonstrated a variation of this, locking up an arm triangle and using it to trip Meaux back to the ground.
Continued here...
