The reason for MMA was to find a way to let the different martial arts practitioners fight against each other and to find out which martial art / fighter is the most effective / best one. There are different sets of rules, but most of them has been advanced over the time to decrease the risk of really bad injuries for the fighters (more details). These days the best MMA fighters aren’t training just one martial art anymore, they adapt the most effective allowed techniques from many martial arts.
General:
- Stay calm and relaxed (prevents you and your opponent from getting hurt)
- Always watch your opponent (to react on attacks and find defense weaknesses)
- Never turn your back on your opponent (except: e.g. back kick, spinning elbow)
- Have a game plan (if it isn’t working try something else, but nothing to fancy)
Positions:
In general there are two basic positions: standing and on the ground. If you are in a standing position it’s more about striking and less about submissions and on the ground it’s the other way around. Normally you are both in the same position, but that isn’t always like that.
Stand-up fighting
- Know the stances and use them correctly
- Keep your hands up (also if you are kicking)
- Close your mouth (upper teeth on lower teeth)
- Know the distances for your different strikes
- Use different striking/kicking combinations
Clinch fighting
- Get a good clinch hold to get or defend the takedown
Ground fighting
- Follow this hierarchy, but as written there prefer the top positions for a Ground and Pound (GnP)
Mixed positions
- Standing: Get around his leg protection (for better stiking)
- Grounded: Bring your legs in between (for kicking and protection)
Transitions:
You should try to use a transition to get to the position in which you are better then your opponent. The transition from standing to the ground is a takedown and for the other way around it’s the stand-up.
Standing takedowns (MMA Fight DB, in order):
Double leg, Single leg, Outside trip, Bodylock, Suplex, Duckunder, Hip Throw and Inside trip.
- Be careful during you takedown attempt to not run into a (flying) knee or end up tapping in a front head lock position.
- There are nearly no Shoulder Throws, cause you can’t really grab your opponents as necessary without them wearing a Gi.
- Also a Guard Pull is a takedown, but you should be sure that you are better on the bottom then your opponent on the top.
Grounded takedowns
Double Ankle Sweep and Tripod Sweep
Stand-up
Release the hold / grips if you opponent already has it and then try to stand-up asap.
Attacks:
Strikes:
- Punches (Jab, Cross, Hook, Uppercut, Livershot, Hammerfist [s], Overhand, Backfist [s])
- Kicks (Front, Side, Roundhouse, Back [s], Hook [s], Axe, Tornado)
- Elbows (Horizontal, Side [s], Upward, Dropping)
- Knees (Front, Round, Flying)
s … spinning (You can also execute this strike in a spinning variation)
Submissions (mma12, in order):
Rear Naked Choke [ch], Guillotine Choke [ch], Armbar [jl], Leg Triangle [ch], Arm Triangle [ch], Kimura [jl], Brabo/Darce Choke [ch], Anaconda Choke [ch], Heel Hook [jl] and Kneebar [jl]
– Submission types: Choke holds [ch], Joint locks [jl] and Compression locks [cl]
Info: There is no Compression lock listed, but examples are Calf slicer, Biceps slicer and Achilles lock.
More details about submissions
Examples:
Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar (UFC 81 – 2008-02-02)
Brock was dominating Frank, but Frank got an epic sweep while he was grounded and Brock was standing. After he swept him to the ground, Frank finished him with a knee bar.
Richie Martinez vs. Ahmed Amir (Brave CF 1 – 2016-09-23)
Richie has a real good ground game, but as typical for BJJ without striking. Ahmed has ground and pound Richie and he can’t find a submission while get punched, so he taps.
Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva (UFC 162 – 2013-07-06)
Silva was quite famous for fighting with hands down and goofing around and has won a lot of fights with it, but during the fight against Weidman he took one step too far and got knocked out for it.
Chris Weidman vs. Yoel Romero (UFC 205 – 2016-12-11)
Weidman was going for a Double leg takedown against Romero, but haven’t protected his head against the flying knee from Romero, which instantly knocked Wideman out.