Why do some fighters never learn the basics of striking defense?

[blaseblase]

I was watching some fights of Luke Rockhold in Strikeforce and he actually had a pretty good chin back in the day. Even back then he was fighting with his hands down and chin in the air, constantly getting tagged. He never learned striking defense and it cost him once he got to the top of the UFC.

It's pretty impressive he became UFC champion in retrospect, only having to pay once during that run against TRT Vitor, which is understandable. Without that chin he would have been another James Vick. But with better defense he could have been a multiple time defending champion.

 

[RonDante]

Maybe cause defense doesn’t score like in boxing, guys just neglect it and focus on offense, hoping their chin doesn’t fall apart

 

[2004 account]

Some fighters find it more economical to use other means of defense like Anderson for example who dodges

 

[HereticBD]

It's MMA. They have to be prepared for all angles and be a jack of all trades, which can lead to sloppier defense in certain areas, than it otherwise would be. Take wrestling for example. They've all got relatively bad defense, compared to if they were in a straight up wrestling match. Like, they wouldn't be standing up straight in a pure wrestling match, leaving themselves open for an easy takedown, like they do in MMA, because they're also trying to counter for strikes.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Luke was a big guy for the weight class


I see striking defense lacking more-so in the taller guys of the divisions


My theory is taller dudes naturally are harder to hit and they tend use the “lean away” method from punches which is wrong when facing shorter opposition


Basically they “get away” with piss poor defense due to having height/reach to allow them to lean away, and paw at their opponents. When you do this non-stop in sparring, it reflects in your fights.

 

[fizzlehiss]

MMA is different than boxing. A lot of abilities like strong grappling lend themselves against defensive mobility. The dangers and angles you can get hit from are so many it's hard to focus on defense over offense.

 

[blaseblase]

Some fighters find it more economical to use other means of defense like Anderson for example who dodges

Rockhold never seemed to have an alternate means of defense though. What's the advantage of not tucking your chin?

 

[aerius]

MMA judging & scoring is heavily biased towards offence and looking busy. For instance, a fighter who throws 100 strikes and lands 5% of them will pretty much always win a fight against someone who throws 20 strikes and lands half of them. Most fighters will therefore prioritize offence so they can score as many points as they can to seal the win in case they can't get the KO.

Also, learning offence is more fun and rewarding than learning good defence. KOs get fighters noticed and move them up the rankings fast.
Everyone like banging and big knockouts, but only the hardest of hardcore fans will appreciate things like this.

 

[BabyBlue_Bomber]

There are even professional boxers who have poor boxing defense, so it's not something easy to transfer...

Some fighters are just more offense-minded than defense-minded...

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Rockhold never seemed to have an alternate means of defense though. What's the advantage of not tucking your chin?

You can see more of his beautiful face

 

[HHJ]

Its alot harder than people think to block without big boxing gloves,and also easier to break through the other guys defense,so priority is given to offense. A guy like Luke tries to manage distance or back away from shots rather than keep his hands up.

 

[HHJ]

Also Luke got that flowy style. Cant be rigidly keepin hands up while doin that

 

[arcadeperfect]

Striking defense is harder than offense. Reacting to another person's actions, especially someone who's trained and fast is going to be very difficult to do.

 

[blaseblase]

Striking defense is harder than offense. Reacting to another person's actions, especially someone who's trained and fast is going to be very difficult to do.

Ok, but tuck your chin and keep your hands up is supposed to be the basics.

 

[OldBoy91]

Maybe cause defense doesn’t score like in boxing, guys just neglect it and focus on offense, hoping their chin doesn’t fall apart

Well some guys in boxing never learn proper defensive technique either.

RJJ comes to mind. Just used athleticism to avoid most shots and when his legs went, all he could do was back up against the ropes and wait for the inevitable shot to KO him.

 

[CPH]

Because not everyone is born with jedi ring vision and yeah, you do need talent to apply the principles.

 

[Guy LeDouche]

It’s common in MMA because a lot of guys don’t start with dedicated striking backgrounds and usually train their striking from a mma training. Most dudes roll into a BJJ class at 18-20 something, decide they like it and pick up a Muay Thai class and voila your an “MMA fighter” smh.

They don’t have the fundamental training as someone who grew up training kickboxing or boxing does.

 

[Stick upkid]

Ok, but tuck your chin and keep your hands up is supposed to be the basics.

Chin tucked yes, but a high guard in mma (and boxing too) comes with some drawbacks. It’s harder to stop a takedown with a high guard, it can partially block your vision, and with the small gloves there’s much more holes in the defense compared to boxing. Offensively as well hands down can be used to hide your punches as they are coming from a different angle. There’s no one right way of striking even in dedicated striking sports. That said there are definitely some bad tendencies if you’re not moving your feet or your head you’re going to get caught eventually

 

[blaseblase]

Chin tucked yes, but a high guard in mma (and boxing too) comes with some drawbacks. It’s harder to stop a takedown with a high guard, it can partially block your vision, and with the small gloves there’s much more holes in the defense compared to boxing. Offensively as well hands down can be used to hide your punches as they are coming from a different angle. There’s no one right way of striking even in dedicated striking sports. That said there are definitely some bad tendencies if you’re not moving your feet or your head you’re going to get caught eventually

Why didn't Rockhold learn to tuck his chin though? And as far as the idea of keeping his hands low helping with defense, it obviously didn't help him.

 

[nonoob]

DUH, because every fighter knows the best defense is a good offense.