The Striking of Conor McGregor (with GIF's) -- RETRO BUMP

[flanellograf]

The fact is that so called "cookie cutter" statement is true. If he keep fighting with his hands down while throwing shots someones gonna catch him, then it becomes a matter of how good his chin is. Having said that I like his striking style, he's gonna have a lot of exciting fights.

No. No it's not. Footwork, angles, positioning are all VASTLY more important than keeping your hands up. Even in boxing. While it can help, countless people have been knocked out in mma, and again even in boxing, while keeping their hands up. It's just a naive, oversimplified, and in essence incorrect statement. People who use it tend to not have the first idea about what actually constitutes good striking.

 

[DjRWD**]

Finding range to the point where you can avoid punches and land a standing elbow, thats impressive. He also moves to the side rather than straight back.

 

[Gaffeln]

He's a beast!

 

[flanellograf]

He`s a really talented striker. Does he have any ground game?

He seems to, yes. He also regularly trains with Gunnar so there's that.

 

[Motofantomx]

Not necessarily. Everyone gets caught eventually no matter where their hands are. The fact is, keeping his hands low makes it look like he's always open so guys like brimage try to capitalize on false opportunities, which is where his counter-punching comes in. The position of his hands not only baits opponents, it also allows him to threaten with them in unique ways by throwing hard punches (like those uppercuts) from outside the opponent's field of vision. Once again, this enhances his counter-punching. Watch his footwork in the gifs. He's always either hopping back to control the range or pivoting to get an angle (gif of the finish) and as long as he keeps doing these things, he can put his hands basically wherever he wants and be safer than the majority of guys.

Plus the low hands help defend takedowns.

This.

I think people just hear Joe Rogan noting whenever someone has their hands down and assume that hands down=risky and hands up=good. This proved true in the Overeem v. Bigfoot fight. This has proved untrue in pretty much every Tito Ortiz fight where his predictably high guard leaves him open to body shots. We'll see where Conor falls in this spectrum; against Brimmage he looked good and it seemed like he knew when his hands were needed to block and when he could afford to keep them down. The true test will be against a better striker with a reach advantage. If he can slip and rip (as Goldberg loves so much) with his hands low and doesn't get hurt in the process I'd say he knows what he's doing. Anderson Silva has made a career out of that and while no one is quite like Anderson he does show that it's possible.

 

[Evbo]

Akira is not impressed.

Nor is he very astute, I really hope Conor takes that fight just so we (most likely) get to see another beatdown and KOTN

 

[Inkee505]

I agree, I'm already wanting to see this kid vs the top competition in FW or LW.

 

[a guy]

This.

I think people just hear Joe Rogan noting whenever someone has their hands down and assume that hands down=risky and hands up=good. This proved true in the Overeem v. Bigfoot fight. This has proved untrue in pretty much every Tito Ortiz fight where his predictably high guard leaves him open to body shots. We'll see where Conor falls in this spectrum; against Brimmage he looked good and it seemed like he knew when his hands were needed to block and when he could afford to keep them down. The true test will be against a better striker with a reach advantage. If he can slip and rip (as Goldberg loves so much) with his hands low and doesn't get hurt in the process I'd say he knows what he's doing. Anderson Silva has made a career out of that and while no one is quite like Anderson he does show that it's possible.

The problem is people see hands down and, like you said, assume it's risky so if the guy with low hands gets dropped people assume it was because he didn't keep his hands up. It's just the most obvious thing to the uneducated viewer and sounds right. Then when someone with hands up gets knocked down, they don't realize that there might be similarities (like giving up a dominant angle to the winner) between the two guys who got knocked out.

That said, there's nothing wrong with keeping your hands high. It gives you a safety net and is especially helpful against a head kicker, but also can limit your offense in some ways and potentially obscure your vision. There are pros and cons to all different guards, but a fighter like Connor is special because his guard perfectly facilitates his style.

If anything (and I've said this before) I would compare Connor to a much more versatile Chuck Liddell. They both have similar footwork and devastating counter-punching, but Connor has a significantly more developed arsenal. Hopefully his grappling is also enough to stuff fools.

 

[The Real Pedro]

His footwork and ability to find angles will help him immensely when it comes to defending takedowns.

That will likely be his biggest challenge in the UFC. The better your striking is, the more incentive you give other fighters to take you down.

 

[JoseAldoKillaBe]

Do you have anything else than that fight, honestly?
Mcgregor looks like a great counter-striker with good reach, but Marcus didn't fight very smart...

 

[Street Level]

Is it just me or does Brimage look like a mini Bobby Lashley?

 

[Azzy]

Akira is not impressed.

I always wanted to know what a UFC contract looked like.

Cheers Akira.

 

[M.V.P.]

No. No it's not. Footwork, angles, positioning are all VASTLY more important than keeping your hands up. Even in boxing. While it can help, countless people have been knocked out in mma, and again even in boxing, while keeping their hands up. It's just a naive, oversimplified, and in essence incorrect statement. People who use it tend to not have the first idea about what actually constitutes good striking.

Yes, you can be KO'd while your hands are up and yes footwork and angles head movement etc are very important. But keeping your hands down while throwing counter shots increases the chance of getting caught and hurt.
As an example see Machida's counter shot against Jones... kept his hand by his waist and got hit clean and dropped by Jones. Made the adjustment of keeping his hand up against Bader, which lead to him blocking Bader's shot. Had he not made that adjustment Bader would have landed and possibly KO'd Machida.

Also keeping your hands up is the first thing boxers (as myself), kickboxers, etc are taught.

 

[Vividsbricks23]

I noticed his movements, and the combinations off the uppercut with the left then right hook..that left cross is money also. One I noticed is that he stood a bit taller than I would normally expect, especially against a shorter Brimage, but he fought tall enough to keep Brimage at range. Just needs to be careful next time around to keep his hands a bit higher. Either way, he has very good reflexes, great footwork and awesome combos

 

[Chapter40z]

theOP took longer to read then to watch the fight

 

[M.V.P.]

Not necessarily. Everyone gets caught eventually no matter where their hands are. The fact is, keeping his hands low makes it look like he's always open so guys like brimage try to capitalize on false opportunities, which is where his counter-punching comes in. The position of his hands not only baits opponents, it also allows him to threaten with them in unique ways by throwing hard punches (like those uppercuts) from outside the opponent's field of vision. Once again, this enhances his counter-punching. Watch his footwork in the gifs. He's always either hopping back to control the range or pivoting to get an angle (gif of the finish) and as long as he keeps doing these things, he can put his hands basically wherever he wants and be safer than the majority of guys.

Plus the low hands help defend takedowns.

Conners style has some advantages as you've said, but keeping your hands down while countering your opponents punches is very risky. If anything the Gifs show me how open he is especially while throwing those uppercuts.
We'll see if he fights the same way against a better striker than Brimage.

 

[flanellograf]

Yes, you can be KO'd while your hands are up and yes footwork and angles head movement etc are very important. But keeping your hands down while throwing counter shots increases the chance of getting caught and hurt.
As an example see Machida's counter shot against Jones... kept his hand by his waist and got hit clean and dropped by Jones. Made the adjustment of keeping his hand up against Bader, which lead to him blocking Bader's shot. Had he not made that adjustment Bader would have landed and possibly KO'd Machida.

Also keeping your hands up is the first thing boxers (as myself), kickboxers, etc are taught.

Kickboxing, first of all, is a different game all together. Big gloves and kicks and NO takedown threat changes the style completely. Less head movement etc. Also, keeping your hands up is the first thing you learn because it is the easiest defense to learn. That doesn't mean it is applicable in all scenarios and in all fighting sports.
Just look at early boxing with smaller/no gloves, and where more clinch (or even throws) was allowed. The style looked a lot more similar to mma, than boxing.

Keeping your hands down increases your ability to find shots and see shots coming (both striking AND wrestling btw). If you do one offs, yes then it's a good idea to keep your other hand up, but you can't do that with combos. Also, keeping your hands down make it harder for your opponent to see when a punch is coming since the movement is different and there is less of a wind-up (if done properly). There are different defenses also, like the shoulder up/chin down, or raising your arms straight out to defend against hooks (Gus likes this).
Point is that there is a risk/reward scenario, and you can't just "put your hands up" and expect that all your problems will be solved.
It doesn't mean you should NEVER keep your hands up, just that the mantra is overused and misunderstood by every Tom, Dick and Harry.

Speaking of Machida, even though he isn't perfect, he sure doesn't get hit a lot while having his hands low. Neither does Jones - he doesn't really rely on keeping hands up but on distance and clinch. A good example of a BAD applications of hands up is Struve, who has the added disadvantage of having long arms and thus not being able to cover up properly.

 

[flanellograf]

The problem is people see hands down and, like you said, assume it's risky so if the guy with low hands gets dropped people assume it was because he didn't keep his hands up. It's just the most obvious thing to the uneducated viewer and sounds right. Then when someone with hands up gets knocked down, they don't realize that there might be similarities (like giving up a dominant angle to the winner) between the two guys who got knocked out.

That said, there's nothing wrong with keeping your hands high. It gives you a safety net and is especially helpful against a head kicker, but also can limit your offense in some ways and potentially obscure your vision. There are pros and cons to all different guards, but a fighter like Connor is special because his guard perfectly facilitates his style.

If anything (and I've said this before) I would compare Connor to a much more versatile Chuck Liddell. They both have similar footwork and devastating counter-punching, but Connor has a significantly more developed arsenal. Hopefully his grappling is also enough to stuff fools.

Yes, there are some similarities to Chuck, but the most important difference is that Chuck used to wade in and rely on his chin to hold up. Connor seems to choose his shots and position a lot more carefully, and has a very balanced stance.

 

[BB in Crazy!!!!]

The problem is people see hands down and, like you said, assume it's risky so if the guy with low hands gets dropped people assume it was because he didn't keep his hands up. It's just the most obvious thing to the uneducated viewer and sounds right. Then when someone with hands up gets knocked down, they don't realize that there might be similarities (like giving up a dominant angle to the winner) between the two guys who got knocked out.

That said, there's nothing wrong with keeping your hands high. It gives you a safety net and is especially helpful against a head kicker, but also can limit your offense in some ways and potentially obscure your vision. There are pros and cons to all different guards, but a fighter like Connor is special because his guard perfectly facilitates his style.

If anything (and I've said this before) I would compare Connor to a much more versatile Chuck Liddell. They both have similar footwork and devastating counter-punching, but Connor has a significantly more developed arsenal. Hopefully his grappling is also enough to stuff fools.

This so much is true.

People always tell me to get my hands up. But since I started letting my forward hand down nad my rear hand high, my striking has improved 3 fold. Including my defense. I get hit about 1 3rd the amount than when I had a traditional high guard. For some reason in reminds me to keep moving and using angles. I duck more too. When I had my high guard I tended to get hit with a lot of straight punches. I also improved since embracing myself as a counterstriker instead of an aggressive high volume combo striker. Plus I still block kicks just as easily because I see them coming a split second sooner plus shoulder rolls can actually defend kicks well if you are already ducking a punch, however I will still use a high guard if I am going against someone who throws a lot of high kicks.

I dunno, I just feel you guys are right from my own experiences.

 

[M.V.P.]

Kickboxing, first of all, is a different game all together. Big gloves and kicks and NO takedown threat changes the style completely. Less head movement etc. Also, keeping your hands up is the first thing you learn because it is the easiest defense to learn. That doesn't mean it is applicable in all scenarios and in all fighting sports.
Just look at early boxing with smaller/no gloves, and where more clinch (or even throws) was allowed. The style looked a lot more similar to mma, than boxing.

Keeping your hands down increases your ability to find shots and see shots coming (both striking AND wrestling btw). If you do one offs, yes then it's a good idea to keep your other hand up, but you can't do that with combos. Also, keeping your hands down make it harder for your opponent to see when a punch is coming since the movement is different and there is less of a wind-up (if done properly). There are different defenses also, like the shoulder up/chin down, or raising your arms straight out to defend against hooks (Gus likes this).
Point is that there is a risk/reward scenario, and you can't just "put your hands up" and expect that all your problems will be solved.
It doesn't mean you should NEVER keep your hands up, just that the mantra is overused and misunderstood by every Tom, Dick and Harry.

Speaking of Machida, even though he isn't perfect, he sure doesn't get hit a lot while having his hands low. Neither does Jones - he doesn't really rely on keeping hands up but on distance and clinch. A good example of a BAD applications of hands up is Struve, who has the added disadvantage of having long arms and thus not being able to cover up properly.

I think I should clarify I'm not talk about keeping your hands up at all times as a defence. But more in response to what I immediately see in the gifs. When Conner strikes most of the time he has his chin in the air and hands down (Maybe he just felt comfortable with Brimage). It just takes a fighter to counter his counter and he gets caught clean. Keeping his hands up while countering as Machida did against Bader would make it harder for the opponent to land when they're both throwing.