Name your top five unorthodox strikers. Past or present.

Neitzsche

Purple Belt
@purple
Joined
Apr 23, 2009
Messages
2,076
Reaction score
0
In light of Hendricks fighting style I began to think of several different fighters with odd striking styles. Many fighters come to mind that pull this off successfully. Some of the best unorthodox strikers that come to mind for me are the following:

(no particular order)

Johny Hendricks- Combine the southpaw stance, odd angles, power in both hands with threat of the take down make Johny an impressive unorthodox striker.

Lyoto Machida- Crane-like kicks, Lyoto is a complicated karate elusive bad ass. The era Joe Roganamus predicted never came, but Lyoto stands as one of the best in the division now and is consistenly improving.

Anderson Silva-Water.

Bones Jones- Nobody who has seen Bones fight deny's the creative style the LHW champion brings to the octagon..

Evan Tanner- Many of Evan Tanner's early fights were based solely on a Bas Rutten training video. Odd angles, power and threat of the takedown led Evan Tanner to obtain the middleweight championship.

Others that come to mind:
Keith Jardine
Cung Le
Anthony Pettis


Who are yours? Who did I miss?
:confused:
 
Chuck Liddell with his low hands and big overhand right comes to mind.
 
JDS throws bombs from weird angles that wud get lesser fighters countered to hell. Quite unorthox at times but obviously very effective.
 
Brock Lesnar wasn't a bad striker before he got sick. I liked his knees in the clinch and that standing elbow he got Randy Couture with was pretty nasty. Of course he blasted Herring with that right straight.

Fans thinking Jon Jones is the only one throwing standing elbows
 
if your list isn't keith jardine five times your list is wrong
 
Brock Lesnar wasn't a bad striker before he got sick. I liked his knees in the clinch and that standing elbow he got Randy Couture with was pretty nasty. Of course he blasted Herring with that right straight.

Fans thinking Jon Jones is the only one throwing standing elbows

Yes, he was. His "illness" didn't rob him of all his skill.
 
Yes, he was. His "illness" didn't rob him of all his skill.

Brock was doing well in the striking before he got sick.

His illness permanently weakened him. Taking punches from Cain and Shane aren't too easy either.
 
I wouldn't really classify most of these guys as being unorthodox. Hendricks is a pretty basic southpaw with a big punch, JDS isn't really unorthodox in any way other than the fact that he gets sloppy sometimes (he has more success when he stays textbook, IMO), even Jones is fairly textbook nowadays (other than his now rare flashy shit) and Machida is traditional shotokan from what I understand (I don't know my karate that well, so correct me if I'm wrong). Anderson blends a few different styles quite well so I could see calling him unorthodox. The way Mighty Mouse switches stances very often (in some of his fights) is a little out there (and reminiscent of Willie Pep in some ways). Melvin Guillard and Benson Henderson are two others that could probably be considered a little unorthodox.
 
In light of Hendricks fighting style I began to think of several different fighters with odd striking styles. Many fighters come to mind that pull this off successfully. Some of the best unorthodox strikers that come to mind for me are the following:

(no particular order)

Johny Hendricks- Combine the southpaw stance, odd angles, power in both hands with threat of the take down make Johny an impressive unorthodox striker.

Lyoto Machida- Crane-like kicks, Lyoto is a complicated karate elusive bad ass. The era Joe Roganamus predicted never came, but Lyoto stands as one of the best in the division now and is consistenly improving.

Anderson Silva-Water.

Bones Jones- Nobody who has seen Bones fight deny's the creative style the LHW champion brings to the octagon..

Evan Tanner- Many of Evan Tanner's early fights were based solely on a Bas Rutten training video. Odd angles, power and threat of the takedown led Evan Tanner to obtain the middleweight championship.

Others that come to mind:
Keith Jardine
Cung Le
Anthony Pettis


Who are yours? Who did I miss?
:confused:

dan-henderson_crop_650x440.jpg
 
Brock was doing well in the striking before he got sick.

His illness permanently weakened him. Taking punches from Cain and Shane aren't too easy either.

No, not really. He was facing shitty strikers completely preoccupied with his takedowns. He never had the technical base or mindset to do anything on the feet against top competition he couldn't take down. Not that he wasn't a dangerous fighter because his takedowns and top game were too much for a lot of fighters but on the feet, he was never worth a damn.
 
No, not really. He was facing shitty strikers completely preoccupied with his takedowns. He never had the technical base or mindset to do anything on the feet against top competition he couldn't take down. Not that he wasn't a dangerous fighter because his takedowns and top game were too much for a lot of fighters but on the feet, he was never worth a damn.

He knocked down Mir in his first UFC fight, blasted the shit outta herring in his second fight, and rocked Couture twice on the feet in their second fight. First with that standing elbow, and then with that right straight.

I didn't know Mir, Herring, and Couture were shitty strikers to beat when you have less than 5 mma fights.

Finally, I dont see how "he was never worth a damn" on the feet before he got sick.
 
Anderson Silva
Junior Dos Santos
Lyoto Machida
Jon Jones
Dominick Cruz
 
Some that come to mind...

Jardine
Diaz
Chonan
Fedor
Anderson


Pettis too, but I really don't get how you could classify Hendricks or Le or Machida as being unorthodox. Are we talking unorthodox STYLE NOT USED MUCH IN MMA or unorthodox for their base art or what?
 
Back
Top