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Why Joanna Jedrzejczyk Will Dominate the UFC’s Strawweight Division

Posted by :jcastle On : March 17, 2015
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Category: Doombeard Opinion, Fight Recap, Muay Thai, UFC

Going into this Saturday’s UFC 185, like many people, I really wondered about the Co-Main event bout between Carla Esparza and Joanna Jedrzejczyk, the second title fight in the history of the UFC’s Strawweight Division.

Carla Esparza was coming of a series of dominant performances on the most recent season of The Ultimate Fighter, where she handily defeated all her opponents, including Rose Namajunas, to become the first champion in the history of the UFC’s Strawweight Division. Carla Esparza’s wrestling has proven to be virtually peerless in her weight division, both before and during this past season of TUF. Nobody in recent years has had much of an answer for her wrestling prowess, and I went into watching the fight this past Saturday unsure of how the fight would play out any differently than her fights over the past four years.

Usually, when people bill a fight as “…this is a classic Grappler vs. Striker matchup”, the fighter with the grappling base ends up winning the fight in dominant fashion. Sometimes the fighter with a striking background will clip them on the feet or upon entry into a takedown…but such don’t happen very often. I will admit that while I have a personal preference towards striking based martial arts, I will not attempt to deny the dominance that grapplers have had in MMA since the onset of the sport.

Jedrzejczyk, a veteran of over 60 Muay Thai fights, as well as being a winner of six championships in that discipline, has one of the better standup pedigrees of any woman in the sport. Her striking efforts in her first two fights in the UFC were nothing short of superb. While the general consensus was that Joanna Jedrzejczyk was stealing the pre-fight media buildup, I continued to see a lot of people predicting a lopsided grappling/submission based win for Esparza. Admittedly, so did I.

Man, was I wrong.

Joanna Jedrzejczyk not only brutalized Esparza on the feet, but also stifled the majority of Esparza’s takedown attempts. Whenever a matchup like this takes place, fans and members of the media alike will immediately say something to the tune of “..well hopefully he/she has been working on her takedown defense!”. It was apparently obvious that not only was Jedrzejczyk working on her takedown defense, she utilized it to greater effect than virtually any of Esparza’s past opponents.

While Jedrzejczyk didn’t use much in the way of kicks and knees, likely to help avoid getting taken down, she absolutely lit up Esparza with countless combinations that were unerringly accurate. And when Esparza would shoot for takedowns to avoid further punishment, Jedrzejczyk almost always met such attempts with deftly executed sprawls and get subsequent scrambles that saw her able to quickly resume her striking efforts.

The end result was a 2nd round TKO victory, with Jedrzejczyk unleashing a blistering five-punch combination upon Esparza, who was backed up close to the cage wall. Upon the referee waving off the fight, Esparza slumped to the ground, leaving little doubt as to the merit of the stoppage.

With the victory, Joanna Jedrzejczyk becomes just the second UFC Strawweight Champion, as well as the first champion of Polish decent in promotional history. With the UFC continually making further inroads into the European and Asian markets, I am certain that the promotion possessing a new European champion certainly can’t hurt their prospects in the region. While the upcoming UFC Fight Night: Krakow card is obviously too soon for Jedrzejczyk to fight on, I’m certain that the UFC would have her fight in a Main Event or Co-Main Event in the future when the UFC returns to Poland.

With her blend of vicious striking and awesome takedown defense, Joanna Jedrzejczyk poses a serious threat to any potential challengers to her belt. If Carla Esparza, the best wrestler in the division by far, couldn’t get much in the way of takedowns, it will likely be quite challenging for other Strawweight fighters to achieve success in that arena.

Personally, I’ll go with a pair of outside choices for Jedrzejczyk’s next opponent.

Joanne Calderwood possesses a phenomenal striking arsenal, effortlessly blending kicks, punches, knees and elbows into devastating combinations. A fight between her and Jedrzejczyk could be fireworks, assuming Calderwood comes out of her upcoming UFC Fight Night: Krakow bout against Maryna Moroz victorious.

Felice Herrig, who possesses some great striking of her own, could also be a great matchup, if she gets by Paige VanZant on April 18 on UFC Fight Night: Machida vs. Rockhold in Newark New Jersey. Herrig is also a very accomplished striker, holding a professional kickboxing record of 23-5, including winning championships and being the number 2 ranked bantamweight by the International Kickboxing Federation. She is one of the few Straweights out there whose experience in other striking based combat sports comes close to that of Jedrzejczyk. A match between the two could very well be a thrilling striking affair, one that would also, in my opinion, drive Pay Per View sales for a variety of reasons…which is also a good thing for the UFC, as they are forever seeking to create female PPV draws in addition to Ronda Rousey.

Having said that, it is impossible to ignore the fact that Jedrzejczyk looks to be an incredibly tall order for anyone she might come against. Even the two aforementioned fighters would have to weather a lot of strikes, accurate ones at that, to be able to enact their respective gameplans and find a way to do what no woman has managed to do before, which is beat Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Claudia Gadelha may have come close, in what was a debated Split Decision, but Jedrzejczyk seems poised to continue to take the MMA world by storm between her awesome interviews and in-cage performances. If she is able to continue to replicate even a decent semblance of last weekend’s performance, I think that she will dominate the UFC Strawweight Division for some time.

And I look forward to watching it!

Honeymoon Muay Thai Fights

Posted by :jcastle On : January 21, 2015
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Category: Muay Thai

My wife and I are on the first full day of our honeymoon, and in true selfish fashion, I decided to take my wife to check out some fights. After having to mitigate the myriad travel agencies in the lobby of the hotel that were trying to push me to attend events in affiliate stadiums on different days, we got the concierge to reserve two VIP tickets to the event tonight in the brand new Chalong Boxing Stadium. As with everything else here in Thailand, tickets were cheap. For front row VIP tickets in a nice, swanky stadium by Thai standards, I paid a price less than some General Admission tickets for the worst US amateur MMA shows I’ve ever attended.

Once we got to the area around the stadium after about an hour in rush hour traffic, we got to the stadium as they were still setting up, telling us to give them another hour. We walked around, eventually settling on a Thai/Italian restaurant across the street from the stadium, where I actually had one of the better pizzas I’ve had in a long time, and my wife had some good Pad Thai.

Once we walked back across the street to the stadium, I checked out their Pro shop, which was full of snazzy gear for cheaper prices than anything I’ve ever seen in the US in an actual brick and mortar setting. There were all kinds of different patterns of gloves that made me seriously ponder going H.A.M and showing back up to the gym with my “glove swag” on a level of general swag unseen except for being in the presence of my good friend, Terrell “The Hollywood Hobbit” Hobbs, who happens to be one of the most “swagged out” fighters on the East Coast, at least.

But I digress.

The fights themselves were great. While snacking on fried chicken, popcorn, Coca Cola, and a single Singha (Thai Beer)…my wife and I were treated to a card of great fights. As you’ll see from some of the attached pictures, there were a few fights that featured kids/teenagers. There were no elbows allowed in these bouts with children, and two were stopped by the referees due to kids not defending themselves quite as much as they’d need to..so the referees waved those bouts off for fighter safety purposes.

I watched an Israeli fighter devastate his Russian opponent with leg kicks, obliterating his right leg. If that fight had gone another round or two instead of just 5 rounds, the Russian guy would have lost just from leg kicks alone, as he was barely able to walk by the end of the 5th, and had to be helped out of the stadium.

muay thai

I watched a fight between a shorter Brazilian and a taller, heavily tattooed Chinese guy. The Chinese fighter owned the first 1.5 rounds, picking apart his opponent at range. But after that, the Brazilian started to tee off on the Chinese fighter, deftly entering into the clinch and then landing countless knees and elbows, constantly winning the important positional battles in the clinch in order to further facilitate the barrages of punches, elbows, and knees he was throwing. The Brazilian fighter won a very convincing decision.

muay thai

I also saw a fight between a Japanese fighter and a local Thai native. While his Thai opponent looked to work a lot of straight kicks, the Japanese fighter was constantly able to get inside and light his opponent up with nice punching combinations and elbows once the distance allowed. Halfway through the third round, after blocking a kick, the Japanese fighter got inside and absolutely flattened his opponent with a straight right, knocking him out cold for quite some time.

muay thai

Overall, the fights were all quite entertaining. It was interesting to think about the fact that some of the fighters, who were still teenagers, could come to America and absolutely devastate grown men in the standup department. It was pretty nuts to see a level of expertise and fluidity of striking in minors that far exceeds some Professional Muay Thai fighters, and especially a fair amount of Professional MMA fighters that I’ve seen in the United States.

muay thai

muay thai

The atmosphere was pretty awesome as well, with traditional Thai music playing during the rounds, juxtaposed with all kinds of rap, dance music, Thai power ballads, and the finest of Linkin Park jams in between various rounds and bouts. The local Thai crowd was very into the show, with a level of cheering for strikes that is oft unseen in America, whereas most of the foreigners just sat and enjoyed the fights a lot more quietly. I also noticed a guy constantly running around taking bets as well as yelling/getting yelled at by various people…but more on him later!

As the show came to a close, we walked outside, saw a few cabs in the parking lot, briefly walked out to the street to see almost all the shops and restaurants closed, then walked back into the parking lot only to find all of the cabs had departed. After the stadium staff had no luck in calling us a cab, the aforementioned bookie came back up to us and offered to take us back to our hotel for considerably cheaper than your average cab here. While part of me was a bit worried about the possibility of being robbed or worse, he was quite small, and I felt confident in my various forms of training and life experiences to disarm and/or physically overpower him and take his SUV and keep on driving to the nearest police station if necessary…so I said ok, much to the chagrin of my wife. As it turns out, among all the hats this guy wore, he actually walked us to his SUV, which was actually a licensed cab! You never know, but I do believe he is my first cab driver/bookie that I’ve encountered! Haha

The ride home was akin to what I’d imagine riding in the back of a grand prix style race car would be. This dude never ceased to drive his SUV less than 2-3 times the posted speed limit. If hitting curbs was scored, he’d have scored a decent number of points. While he was most definitely, in retrospect, under the influence of alcohol or some other illicit substance, this guy got us back to our hotel in record time. I just felt a bit bad, as while I was smiling and laughing about the experience on the way home, I looked over and saw that my wife was a bit distraught. I guess if I haven’t experienced much gnarlier situations in my life, I may have been a bit more disconcerted as well. This bookie/cab driver drove in a way that make Ricky Bobby from the movie Talladega Nights seem like a slow driving, bespectacled septuagenarian.

My wife made me promise to arrange better and more professional transportation if we would attend further Muay Thai events throughout our honeymoon, a demand to which I will most definitely acquiesce to.

All in all, I’m pretty stoked to have caught some awesome Muay Thai fights this early into my honeymoon. My wife is awesome!

Fight Night Challenge Play-by-Play

Posted by :jcastle On : January 21, 2014
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Category: Beard Advantage, Boxing, Doombeard Exclusive, Fight Night Challenge, Fight Recap, Fighting Style, Muay Thai

Fight Night Challenge was an interesting amateur promotion to watch. Not only did they feature entertaining MMA fights, but they opened their show with a boxing match, and also featured four Muay Thai bouts. Below, you will find play-by-plays, plus my opinion, on the fights that night. There is also a video following some match ups, so that you can watch it for yourself.

Calvin Daniels vs. Zach Zeleick (156 lbs. Boxing bout)

RD1:  10-9 Zeleick

RD2: 10-9 Zeleick

RD3: 10-9 Zeleick, but he is fading noticeably

RD4:  10-9 Zeleick

Zach “ZZ” Zeleick wins by Unanimous Decision. “ZZ” seemed to have the edge in power and killer instinct throughout , rocking Daniels several times.

Charles Tarvers vs. Chance Jones (165 lbs.  Modified (no elbows) Muay Thai bout)

Chance Jones has a definitive “Beard Advantage” with a solid full beard.

RD1: 10-9 Jones

RD2: 10-9 Jones

RD3: 10-9 Tarvers

Jones was the definite aggressor early on into the fight, but Tarvers came back and definitely won the third round. Charles Tarvers wins by Unanimous Decision.

Oleksander “The Greek” Humen  vs. Richard “The Outlaw” Thacker ( 170 lbs. MMA Bout)

Oleksander Humen walked out to an awesome Greek hard rock song that also featured heavy doses of mandolin. Humen has an abosolutely awesome entrance song, that I am sure is going to give him some great vibes and added power in the fight. The power of the mandolin compels him!

RD1: Humen lands a snapping leg kick, then another. Thacker clinches up with Humen and pushes him against the cage, where Humen then reverses and lands a series of knees to the legs of Thacker. Humen then attempts to jump and take Thackers back while standing, but instead settles for a slamming takedown, almost immediately achieving mount. Humen then unloads a barrage of punches on Thacker, forcing Thacker to turn over as he wilts under the pressure, with blood streaming down his face. Referee Todd McGovern stepped in and called the end to the bout.

A 2:07 TKO win for Humen in Round 1.

Dakota Donivan vs. Antonio Ortega (130 lbs. Modified MMA rules)

This fight is a modified MMA fight where both competitors are still in high school, with Donivan being 15, and Ortega being 16.

RD1: Ortega lands a solid left hand to begin the bout, with Donivan responding with a takedown. Ortega attempts an Armbar, but Donivan defends it well, but succumbs to the second Armbar attempt.

First Round (:50) Submission (Armbar) win for Antonio Ortega.

Lashonda Hinton vs. Chelsea McCoy (135 lbs. Modified Muay Thai rules)

RD1: 10-9 McCoy

RD2: 10-9 McCoy

RD3: 10-9 McCoy

A re-occuring theme throughout the fight was the rapid fire flurries of punches and knees that Chelsea McCoy was landing on her opponent. While Hinton was landing some hard single shots, McCoy’s blistering speed kept her one step ahead of her opponent throughout the duration of the bout.

30-27 Unanimous Decision victory for Chelsea McCoy.

Roque Zapata vs. Carlos Martinez (135 lbs. MMA fight)

RD1: Both fighters meet in the center and are exchanging hard and fast combos. Zapata in particular. Zapata lands a snapping leg kick, then another. Martinez clinches up on the end of a combination and looks to be working for a takedown against the cage for a while. They separate, with Zapata landing some hard punches as the round comes to a close.

RD2: Zapata takes the center of the cage, then Martinez lands a leg kick. Martinez lands a kick, but Zapata counters with a combination that lands flush on the chin of Martinez. Zapata then throws Martinez to the ground and beginning to work some hard ground and pound with Martinez pushed up against the cage. Martinez briefly achieves Rubber Guard, and is throwing his legs up, fishing for submission attempts. Zapata uses a failed sub attempt to advance to North/South position. Zapata goes for an Armbar, but with the 10-second clapper sounding, instead chooses to focus his efforts on landing a series of audibly hard punches to the body of Martinez to close out the round.

RD3: Martinez misses with a high kick. Zapata attempts a takedown, but Martinez deftly reverses it and lands on top in mount. Zapata rolls over and gives up his back, which Martinez capitalizes on the starts working for a Rear Naked Choke. Zapata is gamely defending, so Martinez mixes in some punches as well. Zapata attempts to stand up, which allows him to improve his position, shaking Martinez off his back. Zapata ends up on top in side control, but Martinez improves his position again, taking his back. Both fighters are now standing and are clinched up against the cage, with Martinez throwing a series of knees to Zapata’s head and body as the round comes to a close. At the end of the round, both fighters embraced and congratulated each other on a great fight.

Split Decision Win for Roque Zapata.

This extremely spirited fight to was truly awesome to watch. Both fighters involved are very exciting, and I am sure have great futures ahead of them in their MMA careers.

Robbie Lillard  vs. Roy Smith (155 lbs. MMA bout)

RD1: Lillard lands a leg kick, then follows up with a series of punches that drop his opponent. Smith seems to be fishing for leg lock of some kind, but Lillard is unrelenting in his efforts at punching Roy Smith in the face. Lillard transitioned between side control and mount, eventually settling on staying in mount. Lillard continues to pound Smith with hard punches and elbows, eventually causing Smith to roll over and submit due to the Strikes right as the referee is preparing to step in and stop the contest.

Robbie Lillard wins by Submission (Strikes) in the first round.

Daryl Jones vs. Corey Brown (155 lbs. MMA Title Bout)

RD1: Jones lands a snapping leg kick to start the round. Jones then lands a series of punches and follows Brown to the ground. Jones uncorks a barrage of punches, but Brown weathers the storm and recovers his position and gets into full guard. After Brown spent some time trying to isolate an arm, Jones got back to his feet and walked away from Brown. A brief exchange sees Brown pushed up against the cage in the clinch. Another combination of punches from Jones sees Brown return to the ground, looking for a submission. Brown throws his legs up and threatens the arm of Jones, but Jones responds with a flurry of hammer-fists to Browns face. Brown regains control of Jones’ wrist, and seems to be looking for either another Armbar or Triangle Choke attempt as the round comes to a close.

At the close of the round, the ringside doctor came into the cage to attend to Brown, whose eye was visibly swollen and he appeared to be having problems with his peripheral vision, causing the ringside doctor to call and end to the fight for the purposes of fighter safety.

Daryl Jones wins via TKO due to Doctor Stoppage, becoming the new FNC Lightweight Champion.

Donald Henshaw vs. Justin Hatcher (170lbs. MMA Bout)

RD1: Henshaw shoots for a takedown from long distance, but is reversed with Hatcher landing on top. After a brief scramble, Hatcher got on top in mount and started raining down punches. Henshaw rolled over and seemed to go limp, forcing Referee Mike King to step in and call an end to the fight.

First round (0:39) TKO victory for Justin Hatcher.

James Speight vs. Nick Minton (255 lbs. MMA Bout)

Beard Advantage goes to Nick Minton, who is rocking a closely cropped full beard.

RD1: Minton throws a two-punch combination, and Speight clinches up with him and puts him against the cage. Minton is working short punches to the body of Speight, who throws Minton to the ground and almost immediately gets to mount. Very shortly thereafter James Speight locks up an Americana that causes Minton to tap almost immediately, causing ref Mike King to call an end to the action.

First Round Submission (Americana) Victory for James Speight.

Victor Rubli vs. Randy Fitzgerald (205 Modified (no elbows) Muay Thai bout)

Definitive Beard advantage for Fitzgerald, who has a solid full beard (goatee and chinstrap).

RD1: Rubli lands a kick, but Fitzgerald responds with a few punches in return. Fitzgerald lands a leg kick, then throws Rubli to the ground in short order. Fitzgerald starts to land his punches flush to the face of Rubli as the round comes to a close, noticeably rocking Rubli.

RD2: Rubli throws a pair of leg kicks, but Fitzgerald responds with hard punches. Rubli wings a right hand, but Fitzgerald slips his punch and lands some punches that drop Rubli again. Fitzgerald lands another series of hard punches that eventually drop Rubli yet again. Referee Todd McGovern steps in to check on Rubli and give him the count, but Rubli’s corner throws in the towel right before McGovern waves off the bout.

Second Round KO win for Randy Fitzgerald, who thanked all of his supporters for coming out to watch what was probably his last fight. If that was indeed his last fight, he certainly acquitted himself well, and ended his fighting career with a dominant performance in front of his friends and family.

Chris Rollins  vs. Brian Rich (145 lbs. MMA Title Bout)

RD1: Rich throws a right hand and starts working for a takedown almost immediately. After he gets Rollins against the cage, he gets a slamming takedown and works some knees to the body of Rollins, who pops back up to his feet in short order. Rich gets another slam takedown, getting in side control and begins to work for a D’Arce choke against the cage.  Rollins gamely defends the choke, constantly moving around and scrambling and eventually getting back to his feet. A furious exchange sees Rich shoot for another takedown in response to the strikes of Rollins. Ref. Todd McGovern separates the fighters and deducts a point from Rollins for strikes to the back of Rich’s head. After giving Rich the customary amount of time to recover, the fight resumes and sees Rich achieve another takedown in short order. Rich then takes the back of Rollins and starts to work for a Rear Naked Choke. Rollins defends the submission and Rich ends up on top in mount, working strikes against the cage until the round comes to a close.

RD2: Rollins starts off the round with a punching combination that sees Rich feint for a takedown.  Rich then feints a punch and shoots for a takedown, but is met with the right knee of Rollins, which connected squarely on his jaw, dropping him. Rollins follows Rich to the ground and throws strikes to Rich’s face and body until Referee Todd McGovern steps in to call an end to the bout.

Second Round TKO stoppage win for Chris Rollins, who remains the FNC 145 lbs. Champion.

John Calloway vs. Kris Lewis (265 lbs. MMA bout)

Since both fighters are in possession of solid but closely cropped full beards, I will award Beard Advantage to both fighters, and will also congratulate both fighters for embracing manliness in general and growing beards.

RD1: Calloway lands a kick to the body of Lewis, who responds in kind. Both fighters clinch up and Calloway ends up on top in the front headlock position. Calloway looks to have locked up the arm of Lewis, who is forced to tap due to the fact that his shoulder got dislocated.

First Round TKO stoppage due to injury, win for John Calloway.

Alan Stephenson vs. Dustin Goard (155 lbs. Muay Thai Title  Bout)

I award Beard Advantage to Dustin Goard, who in addition to having a solid full beard, walked out to “Danger Zone”, showing a great sense of style and panache.

RD1: Goard lands a leg kick, but Stephenson responds with one of his own with some punches to follow it. Both fighters begin to exchange hard leg kicks and punches, with Stephenson having the sleight edge in the exchanges, as he is countering well. Goard lands a few hard punches as the round comes to a close, but Stephenson fires back with some hard punches of his own, having done a good job of catching Goard on the end of a lot of his punches.

RD2: Goard lands a series of leg kicks, but Stephenson continues to respond in kind. Stephenson lands a snapping leg kick, then opens up on Goard with a hard series of punches. Stephenson lands a flush uppercut/hook combo that stuns Goard.

RD3: Stephenson almost immediately uncorks a solid barrage of punches that eventually drop Goard. After the fight resumes after the count, Goard lands a kick to Stephenson’s body, then a leg kick, but Stephenson fires back with hard punches and a spinning back kick that barely misses. Stephenson and Goard exchange strikes until the round comes to a close, a round that Stephenson handily won

RD4: Goard misses with a kick, then Stephenson responds with a body kick of his own, then a hard series of punches to the face of Goard. Stephenson is clearly wining on most of the exchanges, and seems to be putting a lot of power on all his strikes without his cardio appearing to be any worse for wear. Stephenson continues to land hard punches until the end of the round, clearly dominating yet another round.

RD5: Stephenson lands a solid combo to the face of Goard, who responds with a flying knee and subsequent spinning back-fist attempts that miss. Goard lands a snapping kick to the body of Stephenson , who responds with an audibly hard body shot of his own, followed by series of jabs. Goard fires back with strikes, but Stephenson catches him with a hard uppercut before both fighters clinch up. The round ends with both fighters throwing strikes up against the cage.

Unanimous Decision victory for Alan Stephenson, who handily dismantled his opponent throughout the fight with his superior striking abilities.

Jon-Taine Hall vs. Dashawn Boatwright (205 lbs. MMA Title )

Beard Advantage most assuredly goes to Dashawn “The 400 lbs. Silverback” Boatwright, who is sporting a great full beard and a Mohawk that is reminiscent of Mr. T.

RD1: Boatwright lands a hard kick to the body of Hall, and he follows it up with a punching combination and a high kick that drops Hall. Hall gets back up to his feet and attempts to clinch with Boatwright, but is easily shucked off. Boatwright lands a leg kick, then throws another kick that is caught by Hall, who then briefly gets him to the canvas. Boatwright almost immediately reverses and ends up on top in mount, then gets back to his feet in short order. Boatwright chases Hall down and begins to clobber him with punches. Hall responds with a takedown attempt against the cage, which Boatwright completely stifles. Both fighters separate, and Boatwright resumes his efforts at successfully stalking Hall and mixing up punches and kicks. Hall throws a leg kick, and is then chased down by Boatwright. Both fighters end up clinched against the cage, reversing position several times until they separate.  Boatwright then throws a barrage of strikes to the head of Hall, dropping him with an extremely hard punch. Boatwright is on top of Hall, landing some short punches before he stands back up. Hall then shoots for and gets a takedown, but Boatwright almost immediately pops back to his feet. Hall throws a few front kicks and jabs to keep Boatwright at a distance. Hall shoots for yet another takedown that Boatwright shrugs off, clearly being the stronger fighter. Hall gets backed up against the cage and is nailed with an audibly hard right hand to the body. Hall throws another kick to the body of Boatwright right before the round comes to a close.

RD2: Both fighters meet in the center, with Boatwright immediately landing a leg kick, then another. Hall throws a series of front kicks to keep Boatwright at a distance. Boatwright lands another hard leg kick, then another. Boatwright then charges Hall with a hard punching combination, with Hall responding with a hard hook of his own. Boatwright then rushes in to throw more punches, but is inadvertently poked in the eye by Hall, who was keeping his jab hand out to keep distance.

After being attended to by the ringside physician, the fight was declared a No Contest due to an inadvertent eye poke by Hall to the eye of Boatwright. Up until the eye-poke, it was a fight that Boatwright was handily winning, having dropped his opponent several times in the space of the first round alone. I look forward to checking out their rematch, which will be taking place at the next Fight Night Challenge on March 29th in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Simply put, the guys at Fight Night Challenge put on an absolutely great show. The night’s card was full of quality and exciting fights, and I greatly look forward to covering their shows in the future.

Why Edson Barboza is a Scary Dude

Posted by :jcastle On : July 8, 2013
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Category: Leg Kicks, Muay Thai, UFC Fight Recap

Tags:, , , , , , ,

With his victory over Rafaello Oliveira last Saturday, Edson Barboza has become the first person to finish two fights by TKO via Leg Kicks in the history of the UFC (and any ZUFFA-acquired promotions therein). His first TKO victory via Leg Kicks was achieved at UFC 123 against Michael Lullo at (0:26) of the 3rd round. Beyond just leading the UFC in leg kick TKO’s, the greater implications of what Edson Barboza accomplished last Saturday really make him stand out amongst an organization that is replete with skilled fighters.

Leg kicks are a part of just about any MMA fighters striking repertoire. They are one of the main cornerstones of Muay Thai, and have become so in Mixed Martial Arts as well. When a fighter lands kicks on his opponent’s leg, he can damage that leg and negatively impact his opponent’s effectiveness in just about every facet of MMA. A fighter who is on the receiving end of some well placed leg kicks will find that his abilities to shoot for takedowns, use footwork and speed to effectively strike and evade his opponents strikes, and even his general movement will be adversely effected and slowed, and the pain from repeated kicks to his legs could quite possibly begin to sap his will to fight in general.

Jose Aldo is a name that comes to mind when you think about a victory that was achieved, in no small part, by the brutally efficient execution of leg kicks. When Jose Aldo faced Urijah Faber at WEC 48, he hit Faber with a total of 32 leg kicks over the course of their five-round fight for the WEC’s Featherweight Championship. After weathering a fair amount of kicks, Urijah Faber was noticeably hobbled by the effects of the kicks, even falling to the canvas as a result of them. The overall impact of Jose Aldo’s effectiveness in hurting Urijah Faber’s legs resulted in a fight that saw Faber unable to mount much offense. Handily dominating their fight, Jose Aldo out-struck Urijah Faber by a ratio of almost 3-1, leaving Faber largely unable to utilize his highly vaunted wrestling skills with the effects of his leg kicks clearly affecting him adversely. Other notable MMA fighters to use leg kicks with great effectiveness are Forrest Griffin in his Title Fight against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, as well Pedro Rizzo in a slew of his fights.

Edson Barboza wasted very little time before utilizing the cornerstone of his strategy, blasting Rafaello Oliveira with a leg kick in short order to begin the first round. Olivera’s troubles seemed to be mounting quickly, where he was noticeably staggered by a fourth kick to his lead leg at (3:47) in the first round. At (0:46) Oliveira was again hobbled after taking the eleventh kick to his lead leg alone, and began limping a bit as a result. At the end of the first round, Rafaello Oliveira was on the receiving end of 14 kicks to his lead leg. After taking his fourth leg kick of the round at (3:57) of the second round, Oliveira was again hobbling in pain. Edson Barboza immediately landed another thudding leg kick, sending Oliveira falling forwards, trying to salvage his involuntary collapse into some sort of takedown attempt, from which Barboza easily backed away from. With a sixth leg kick, Barboza sent Oliveira crashing to the mat again at the (3:36) mark, backing away to let Oliveira attempt to get up and ostensibly take more punishment. When Oliveira got to his feet, he was noticeably limping as a result of the damage to his leg, leaving him in a precarious situation as the fight continued. Edson Barboza landed his seventh and eighth leg kicks in the span of three seconds, sending Oliveira crashing to the mat again. Clearly unable to get up and continue to take such mounting punishment, referee Herb Dean waved the fight of as a TKO stoppage at (3:17) into the second round.

With a total of twenty-two leg kicks, Edson Barboza left his opponent unable to stand in less than a round and a half. While the fight also showed his ability to fend off any attempts by Oliveira to bring the fight to the ground, Barboza’s striking acumen and brutal utilization of leg kicks really were his crowning achievement in the fight. With his ability to use leg kicks so effectively, Barboza presents a daunting opponent for fighters of a striking or grappling persuasion. As evidenced in many of his past fights, fighters looking to strike with Barboza are often subjected to a fast-paced and dizzying array of strikes, often to their detriment. A grappling based fighter, such as Oliveira, will also be on the receiving end of a great deal of strikes in their attempts (or inability) to close the distance and get Edson Barboza to the ground.

With only a single UFC loss to his name, an upset of a TKO loss to Jamie Varner, Edson Barboza is certainly poised to make waves in the UFC’s Lightweight division. Barboza requested a match-up against a Top-Five opponent for his next fight, which I sincerely hope the UFC will oblige him with. At this point, I think there might be some fighters in lofty positions in the Lightweight division that aren’t necessarily looking forward to such a match-up. Time will tell whether this is the case.

As I said before, almost all MMA fighters utilize leg kicks, but very few of them utilize them to the degree that Edson Barboza does. Edson Barboza is a scary prospect for anyone to face in a fight, or at least anyone who enjoys his or her ability to walk.

I certainly would not want to be on the receiving end of dozens of leg kicks from Edson Barboza. Generally speaking, I do enjoy my ability to walk quite a lot.