why did people stop palm striking the ear?

remember how huge that was back in the day? it seemed like it legitimately messed with guys equilibrium, yet nobody does it anymore.

 

Great question.

I also wonder what happened to the beautiful art of the Interlocking Fish Smash. That needs to be a tool every MMA has in their back pocket.

 

They were doing palm strikes bc they weren't allowed to use closed fists. Now the interlocking fish smash is another story....

 

It still happens but those strikes looks so insignificant that it's hard to notice.

 

Agreed. I think it evolved out because punches to the head are more successful.

Sure a Stockton Slap makes the crowd go "woo". And it's a solid head game move. But it doesn't put your opponent down.

I've often wondered how strong Bas' wrists must have been. He dropped cats with slaps to the kidney (EDIT: I mean liver) ffs.

 

(in close-quarters/grappling) you can actually generate more force (and have less/no padding on your palms) with "rabbit shots", whereas those same shots with your fists will do literally nothing and look pathetic.
Now, in stand-up, they're pretty much useless, I agree.

edit: The effective open-palm strikes I'm referring to are virtually on or *just* behind the ear, so they F that equilibrium pretty easily.

 

Bas punched, kneed and kicked the liver. Pancrase rules allowed whatever as far as it wasn't to the head

 

I'm pretty sure I saw him put someone down with a liver slap too. (EDIT: I just realized I said "kidney" before not "liver"- oops)

 

I hear ya. And ya, they're still used in GnP, often. Most recently Condit was doing it to Brown in round 1, from bottom.

In my answer I was certainly thinking only about standup affairs

 

Kind of unrelated, but watching Brown eating SOOOO many of those little, repeated shots to the head, pretty much the whole fight, kept having me think about how much head-damage he's taken, and how I *think* he even retired a few years back because of concussion problems he was having . . . I was grimacing several times watching that.

...haha, and them even more grimacing watching Kattar get chewed up. Tougher than nails.

 

I think the interlocking fish smash is reserved to only fans

 

Didn't Conor do that when khabib had him against the cage in the first? I remember him doing it to someone else too.

 

Fighters still do that. Conor and Holland due it often when taken down or pushed against the cage

 

Why palm strike someone in the ear standing or on the ground, when you can just punch or elbow??

 

It works, it's effective. The reason people don't do them is they either don't train them or were never taught them. Most don't ever try to strike off their back in any way because they are purely focused on grappling only. Their grappling training primarily has zero strikes involved so they are more used to just grappling from the bottom. Very few actually try striking from the bottom and the ones that do have found success in doing so. So the answer is in their training and in their teaching.

 

Bas seemed like a pretty strong overall striker, I mean he was a solid 205-215 lbs or so back in the day. had some great knockouts in Pacrase

 

Easier to get more power in the strike and from the angle from the bottom it's easier to hit open palm with your hand cupped than it is with a closed fist. You'll hit with more surface area also. Very hard to get the proper angle with a clenched fist from the bottom to punch effectively and most can't generate a lot of power from their punches within a short range of motion like that. Elbows work too but you can get off more palm strikes and from both sides of the head a lot faster than doing only elbow. A mix of everything is what works best with heel strikes to ribs/liver also. But most don't practice or learn any of this so you won't be seeing any of it from most fighters.

 

I remember Sonnen doing it to Silva.