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Any UFC card in China means two things - those of us in North America get a taste of what the late nights are like for European fight fans, and we’re probably going to see a lot of side kicks.
These cards tend to be filled with fighters from a Sanda background, which makes liberal use of the teep’s odder, rarer cousin. Sanda is a competition format for various Wushu and Kung-Fu styles, and their heavily bladed stances harken back to that lineage. With the lead foot turned heavily inward, teeps are made awkward and it becomes more natural to draw the knee straight up, before trying to stab the heel through the opponent’s tummy.
But the side kick serves another practical purpose in a hybrid kickboxing/wrestling sport where much effort is dedicated to catching kicks and converting them into takedowns. The side kick is one of the more difficult kicks to catch. While rounds kicks and linear kicks with the toes pointed forward can end up caught on retraction, the heel acting as a handle for the opponent to grip, side kicks turn the heel to the side where it stays out of their grasp. You’ll rarely see side kicks caught with an errant grab, instead they typically require a more intentional, well-timed catch akin to clutching a football.
It came as no surprise that we saw quite a few side kicks from the Chinese fighters on the card. One of the more interesting uses came from Wang Cong, who established a powerful side kick to push her opponent to the fence, before hopping in and picking up the leg as if to kick the body again before going upstairs with it. At 0:18 of the clip above, you’ll note that Cong takes two hops in, turning her planting foot inward a bit more with each hop, which gives her hip room to fully drive up to the head as her leg extends.
But Cong’s fight also gave us a look at the downsides of a common Sanda technique in the cross catch.
If you follow Muay Thai, you’ve seen this a thousand times. Since the arm on the side of the kick is kept up near the head, it results in the safest catching option, since you’ll take the kick on the forearm even if the catch fails. However, even if the kick succeeds, you’ve just been smashed in the arm and now you’re left holding the leg at its very end, where it can be quickly ripped away. Converting on this type of catch is far from a guarantee - you’ll often see Thais trade kicks and catches, dropping the leg and firing back, only to have their return caught as well.
Enter the cross catch, which is a far more risky option, but leads to a near guaranteed conversion. Common in traditional martial arts like Karate, but also widely employed in Sanda, the cross catch reverses the position of the hands. The far arm swings across to block the kick, while the near arm scoops under.
With the arm on the same side as the kick scooping underneath, the kicking leg ends up shelved on top of the shoulder. There are a number of easy finishes from there, but all that’s really necessary is to run forward and let the kicker fall over. It ends up resembling a treetop finish to a single leg takedown, but with a much better grip to elevate the leg.
However, the downsides are immediately apparent once you see this sort of catch executed. Since the arm that usually protects the face is held low, failing to bring the opposite arm across in time means giving the opponent a free shot at perhaps the highest percentage fight-ending blow in combat sports. The far arm can be a problem too, as it can easily find itself in an unstable position and end up compromised when the shin slams into it.
Cong’s opponent, Gabriella Fernandes, had been attempting head kicks all fight, but Cong would just lean back smoothly and let them fall short. Midway through the second round she tried to mix it up, however, looking to toss Fernandes to the mat by catching her kick.
A slight hip feint gives Fernandes an edge and Cong times her catch poorly, running head first into the shin with no forearm in place to cushion the blow. While Cong was dominating the fight up to this point, the clean head kick gave Fernandes a big enough opportunity to pounce on, quickly dropping Cong again and choking her clean out.
Strangely, the Macao event also gave us an example of a perfectly executed cross catch for comparison. No discussion of Sanda in MMA is complete without mentioning Muslim Salikhov. A five time world Sanda champion, Salikhov is the front runner for the greatest Sanda practitioner of all time. His background in Sanda has carried him to a surprisingly succesful UFC career despite entering way after his prime and being the oldest athlete on any card involving him.
When Kenan’s head kick comes, Salikhov first raises his left arm like he’s about to cross it over, but immediately recognizes he doesn’t have the time and instead lurches forward. He doesn’t use the far arm at all, but he covers enough ground to jam the kick, getting his shoulder under the knee and his head outside the most dangerous arc of the lower shin. The catch can be similarly executed without the stopping forearm by circling away from the kick’s arc while scooping under with the near hand, but time it even slightly wrong at your own peril.
The key here is Salikhov’s eyes and honed reactions. He’s perfectly aware of the distance and recognizes he has time to beat the kick by stepping into it, where Cong is late to the punch and ends up plowing into the kick from a range where she’d be better off leaning back. If you go and watch some highlights of Salikhov in Sanda, you’ll see he’s a master of this and can pull it off consistently without getting himself beaned.
As a final note on the cross catch, top Muay Thai fighter, Kumandoi Petchyindee, has a unique and ballsy variation on the theme:
Instead of bothering with woke nonsense like blocking kicks, Kumandoi simply storms forward diagonally with his favorite left hook while keeping his rear hand at his belt line. The hope is that if his opponent throws a kick or knee, his forward movement will jam it and the kick will fall onto his scooping rear hand, where he can then toss his man to the floor. It looks stupid and like he’s just being sloppy, but he does it consistently enough that there’s obvious intention behind it.
When Kumandoi’s hulk toss works, it ends up looking very cool, but the corollary is that it will get you kicked in the head a lot. In fact, Kumandoi does get kicked in the head, a lot, and often loses fights to southpaws who can diguise their high kicks well. I wouldn’t try this one at home.
But while Salikhov’s kick catch provided a neat little flourish of Sanda nous, his finish a moment later far eclipsed it. Salikhov put heel to jaw in a gorgeous spinning hook kick that robbed Song Kenan of his consciousness.
These cards tend to be filled with fighters from a Sanda background, which makes liberal use of the teep’s odder, rarer cousin. Sanda is a competition format for various Wushu and Kung-Fu styles, and their heavily bladed stances harken back to that lineage. With the lead foot turned heavily inward, teeps are made awkward and it becomes more natural to draw the knee straight up, before trying to stab the heel through the opponent’s tummy.
But the side kick serves another practical purpose in a hybrid kickboxing/wrestling sport where much effort is dedicated to catching kicks and converting them into takedowns. The side kick is one of the more difficult kicks to catch. While rounds kicks and linear kicks with the toes pointed forward can end up caught on retraction, the heel acting as a handle for the opponent to grip, side kicks turn the heel to the side where it stays out of their grasp. You’ll rarely see side kicks caught with an errant grab, instead they typically require a more intentional, well-timed catch akin to clutching a football.
It came as no surprise that we saw quite a few side kicks from the Chinese fighters on the card. One of the more interesting uses came from Wang Cong, who established a powerful side kick to push her opponent to the fence, before hopping in and picking up the leg as if to kick the body again before going upstairs with it. At 0:18 of the clip above, you’ll note that Cong takes two hops in, turning her planting foot inward a bit more with each hop, which gives her hip room to fully drive up to the head as her leg extends.
But Cong’s fight also gave us a look at the downsides of a common Sanda technique in the cross catch.
The Most Dangerous Catch
When catching kicks, traditionally the kick is taken on the same-side arm while the opposite arm scoops under and traps the leg between them. Shamil Musaev demonstrates:If you follow Muay Thai, you’ve seen this a thousand times. Since the arm on the side of the kick is kept up near the head, it results in the safest catching option, since you’ll take the kick on the forearm even if the catch fails. However, even if the kick succeeds, you’ve just been smashed in the arm and now you’re left holding the leg at its very end, where it can be quickly ripped away. Converting on this type of catch is far from a guarantee - you’ll often see Thais trade kicks and catches, dropping the leg and firing back, only to have their return caught as well.
Enter the cross catch, which is a far more risky option, but leads to a near guaranteed conversion. Common in traditional martial arts like Karate, but also widely employed in Sanda, the cross catch reverses the position of the hands. The far arm swings across to block the kick, while the near arm scoops under.
With the arm on the same side as the kick scooping underneath, the kicking leg ends up shelved on top of the shoulder. There are a number of easy finishes from there, but all that’s really necessary is to run forward and let the kicker fall over. It ends up resembling a treetop finish to a single leg takedown, but with a much better grip to elevate the leg.
However, the downsides are immediately apparent once you see this sort of catch executed. Since the arm that usually protects the face is held low, failing to bring the opposite arm across in time means giving the opponent a free shot at perhaps the highest percentage fight-ending blow in combat sports. The far arm can be a problem too, as it can easily find itself in an unstable position and end up compromised when the shin slams into it.
Cong’s opponent, Gabriella Fernandes, had been attempting head kicks all fight, but Cong would just lean back smoothly and let them fall short. Midway through the second round she tried to mix it up, however, looking to toss Fernandes to the mat by catching her kick.
A slight hip feint gives Fernandes an edge and Cong times her catch poorly, running head first into the shin with no forearm in place to cushion the blow. While Cong was dominating the fight up to this point, the clean head kick gave Fernandes a big enough opportunity to pounce on, quickly dropping Cong again and choking her clean out.
Strangely, the Macao event also gave us an example of a perfectly executed cross catch for comparison. No discussion of Sanda in MMA is complete without mentioning Muslim Salikhov. A five time world Sanda champion, Salikhov is the front runner for the greatest Sanda practitioner of all time. His background in Sanda has carried him to a surprisingly succesful UFC career despite entering way after his prime and being the oldest athlete on any card involving him.
When Kenan’s head kick comes, Salikhov first raises his left arm like he’s about to cross it over, but immediately recognizes he doesn’t have the time and instead lurches forward. He doesn’t use the far arm at all, but he covers enough ground to jam the kick, getting his shoulder under the knee and his head outside the most dangerous arc of the lower shin. The catch can be similarly executed without the stopping forearm by circling away from the kick’s arc while scooping under with the near hand, but time it even slightly wrong at your own peril.
The key here is Salikhov’s eyes and honed reactions. He’s perfectly aware of the distance and recognizes he has time to beat the kick by stepping into it, where Cong is late to the punch and ends up plowing into the kick from a range where she’d be better off leaning back. If you go and watch some highlights of Salikhov in Sanda, you’ll see he’s a master of this and can pull it off consistently without getting himself beaned.
As a final note on the cross catch, top Muay Thai fighter, Kumandoi Petchyindee, has a unique and ballsy variation on the theme:
Instead of bothering with woke nonsense like blocking kicks, Kumandoi simply storms forward diagonally with his favorite left hook while keeping his rear hand at his belt line. The hope is that if his opponent throws a kick or knee, his forward movement will jam it and the kick will fall onto his scooping rear hand, where he can then toss his man to the floor. It looks stupid and like he’s just being sloppy, but he does it consistently enough that there’s obvious intention behind it.
When Kumandoi’s hulk toss works, it ends up looking very cool, but the corollary is that it will get you kicked in the head a lot. In fact, Kumandoi does get kicked in the head, a lot, and often loses fights to southpaws who can diguise their high kicks well. I wouldn’t try this one at home.
But while Salikhov’s kick catch provided a neat little flourish of Sanda nous, his finish a moment later far eclipsed it. Salikhov put heel to jaw in a gorgeous spinning hook kick that robbed Song Kenan of his consciousness.
