Mixed Martial Arts is a combination of many different fighting styles and techniques. The orginal fighting styles and techniques must be altered to achieve maximum effectiveness in MMA. What works in a wrestling match doesn’t necessarily work exactly the same way in MMA. One great example is the difference between MMA stand up and boxing. What is the difference between the stand up technique needed for MMA and the technique of a top level boxer? Marcus Davis gives some insight:
“One is the way you stand,” Davis said. “The way everyone stands so upright and staggered. You need to square your hips to defend a takedown. Also, to check a kick, you can’t do that from a staggered stance. You have to center up a little bit, hips pointed forward, in order to check a kick correctly.
“That right there takes away a lot of your boxing stuff,” he said. “And then the way you throw punches, the way you move your head. The defense is different. In boxing you lean back and do, like, the fading out of a punch. You can’t do that in MMA. If you lean back, you leave your legs forward. That leg will either be kicked or it leaves the leg open for a takedown.”
Davis said one cannot bob and weave because of the danger of being kneed, or of the chance of being caught in a Muay Thai clinch that leaves one vulnerable to knees and elbows.
But once he made the transition, Davis said, there were elements of boxing he continued – and continues – to use.
“The timing of punches, being able to get into the pocket, throw punches and not get hit, I was still able to carry that over into my MMA,” he said. “Defensively, I figured out what works in MMA and what does not work in MMA. The big thing is head movement. You have to be able to move your head, and you still have a lot of MMA fighters who don’t know that. A lot of MMA fighters do what I call framing up, where they just put both their hands up and keep them nice and tight around their head.”
